Benito Cereno

Herman Melville

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Benito Cereno

IN THE YEAR 1799,1 Captain Amasa Delano, of Duxbury, in Massachusetts,commanding a large sealer and general trader, lay at anchor, with avaluable cargo, in the harbor of St. Maria — a small, desert, uninhab-ited island toward the southern extremity of the long coast of Chili.There he had touched for water.

On the second day, not long after dawn, while lying in his berth,his mate came below, informing him that a strange sail was cominginto the bay. Ships were then not so plenty in those waters as now. Herose, dressed, and went on deck.

The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was muteand calm; everything gray. The sea, though undulated into long roods

1. 1799: Melville changed a number of details in his source, Amasa Delano’s Narrative,including the date of the encounter (from 1805 to 1799) and the names of the ships:Delano’s Perseverence to the Bachelor’s Delight and Cereno’s Tryal to the SanDominick.

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of swells, seemed fixed, and was sleeked at the surface like waved lead thathas cooled and set in the smelter’s mould. The sky seemed a gray surtout.2

Flights of troubled gray fowl, kith and kin with flights of troubled grayvapors among which they were mixed, skimmed low and fitfully over thewaters, as swallows over meadows before storms. Shadows present, fore-shadowing deeper shadows to come.

To Captain Delano’s surprise, the stranger, viewed through the glass,showed no colors; though to do so upon entering a haven, however uninhab-ited in its shores, where but a single other ship might be lying, was the cus-tom among peaceful seamen of all nations. Considering the lawlessness andloneliness of the spot, and the sort of stories, at that day, associated withthose seas, Captain Delano’s surprise might have deepened into someuneasiness had he not been a person of a singularly undistrustful goodnature, not liable, except on extraordinary and repeated incentives, andhardly then, to indulge in personal alarms, any way involving the imputationof malign evil in man. Whether, in view of what humanity is capable, such atrait implies, along with a benevolent heart, more than ordinary quicknessand accuracy of intellectual perception, may be left to the wise to determine.

But whatever misgivings might have obtruded on first seeing thestranger, would almost, in any seaman’s mind, have been dissipated by observ-ing that, the ship, in navigating into the harbor, was drawing too near the land,for her own safety’s sake, owing to a sunken reef making out off her bow. Thisseemed to prove her a stranger, indeed, not only to the sealer, but the island;consequently, she could be no wonted freebooter on that ocean. With no smallinterest, Captain Delano continued to watch her — a proceeding not muchfacilitated by the vapors partly mantling the hull, through which the farmatin3 light from her cabin streamed equivocally enough; much like the sun —by this time hemisphered on the rim of the horizon, and apparently, in com-pany with the strange ship, entering the harbor — which, wimpled by the samelow, creeping clouds, showed not unlike a Lima intriguante’s one sinister eyepeering across the Plaza from the Indian loop-hole of her dusk saya-y-manta.4

It might have been but a deception of the vapors, but, the longer thestranger was watched, the more singular appeared her maneuvers. Ere long

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2. surtout: Overcoat.3. matin: Taking place in the morning. In the Christian church, the matins are the first wor-ship service of the day.4. saya-y-manta: A veil worn by nineteenth-century Peruvian women in public. Concealingall of the face except one eye, it allows a woman to carry on her intrigues — “not unlike a Limaintriguante” — without discovery. (See Figure 3.)

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it seemed hard to decide whether she meant to come in or no — what shewanted, or what she was about. The wind, which had breezed up a littleduring the night, was now extremely light and baffling, which the moreincreased the apparent uncertainty of her movements.

Surmising, at last, that it might be a ship in distress, Captain Delanoordered his whale-boat to be dropped, and, much to the wary opposition ofhis mate, prepared to board her, and, at the least, pilot her in. On the nightprevious, a fishing-party of the seamen had gone a long distance to somedetached rocks out of sight from the sealer, and, an hour or two before day-break, had returned, having met with no small success. Presuming thatthe stranger might have been long off soundings, the good captain put sev-eral baskets of the fish, for presents, into his boat, and so pulled away.From her continuing too near the sunken reef, deeming her in danger, call-ing to his men, he made all haste to apprise those on board of their situa-tion. But, some time ere the boat came up, the wind, light though it was,having shifted, had headed the vessel off, as well as partly broken the vaporsfrom about her.

Upon gaining a less remote view, the ship, when made signally visibleon the verge of the leaden-hued swells, with the shreds of fog here andthere raggedly furring her, appeared like a white-washed monastery aftera thunder-storm, seen perched upon some dun cliff among the Pyrenees.But it was no purely fanciful resemblance which now, for a moment, almostled Captain Delano to think that nothing less than a ship-load of monkswas before him. Peering over the bulwarks were what really seemed, in thehazy distance, throngs of dark cowls; while, fitfully revealed through theopen port-holes, other dark moving figures were dimly descried, as of BlackFriars5 pacing the cloisters.

Upon a still nigher approach, this appearance was modified, and thetrue character of the vessel was plain — a Spanish merchantman of the firstclass; carrying negro slaves, amongst other valuable freight, from onecolonial port to another. A very large, and, in its time, a very fine vessel,such as in those days were at intervals encountered along that main; some-times superseded Acapulco treasure-ships, or retired frigates of the Spanishking’s navy, which, like superannuated Italian palaces, still, under a declineof masters, preserved signs of former state.

As the whale-boat drew more and more nigh, the cause of the peculiarpipe-clayed aspect of the stranger was seen in the slovenly neglect pervading

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5. Black Friars: Members of the Dominican order of monks.

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her. The spars, ropes, and great part of the bulwarks, looked woolly, from longunacquaintance with the scraper, tar, and the brush. Her keel seemed laid,her ribs put together, and she launched, from Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones.

In the present business in which she was engaged, the ship’s generalmodel and rig appeared to have undergone no material change from theiroriginal war-like and Froissart pattern. However, no guns were seen.

The tops were large, and were railed about with what had once beenoctagonal net-work, all now in sad disrepair. These tops hung overhead likethree ruinous aviaries, in one of which was seen perched, on a ratlin, a whitenoddy, a strange fowl, so called from its lethargic, somnambulistic charac-ter, being frequently caught by hand at sea. Battered and mouldy, the castel-lated forecastle seemed some ancient turret, long ago taken by assault,and then left to decay. Toward the stern, two high-raised quarter galleries —the balustrades here and there covered with dry, tindery sea-moss — open-ing out from the unoccupied state-cabin, whose dead lights, for all themild weather, were hermetically closed and calked — these tenantless bal-conies hung over the sea as if it were the grand Venetian canal. But theprincipal relic of faded grandeur was the ample oval of the shield-like stern-piece, intricately carved with the arms of Castile and Leon, medallionedabout by groups of mythological or symbolical devices; uppermost and cen-tral of which was a dark satyr in a mask, holding his foot on the prostrateneck of a writhing figure, likewise masked.

Whether the ship had a figure-head, or only a plain beak, was not quitecertain, owing to canvas wrapped about that part, either to protect it whileundergoing a re-furbishing, or else decently to hide its decay. Rudelypainted or chalked, as in a sailor freak, along the forward side of a sort ofpedestal below the canvas, was the sentence, “Seguid vuestro jefe,” (followyour leader); while upon the tarnished head-boards, near by, appeared, instately capitals, once gilt, the ship’s name, “SAN DOMINICK,”6 each letter streak-ingly corroded with tricklings of copper-spike rust; while, like mourningweeds, dark festoons of sea-grass slimily swept to and fro over the name,with every hearse-like roll of the hull.

As at last the boat was hooked from the bow along toward the gangwayamidship, its keel, while yet some inches separated from the hull, harshlygrated as on a sunken coral reef. It proved a huge bunch of conglobatedbarnacles adhering below the water to the side like a wen; a token of baf-fling airs and long calms passed somewhere in those seas.

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6. San Dominick: The name recalls the earlier reference to Dominican friars, as well asEuropean (French and Spanish) New World colonialism in the Caribbean.

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Climbing the side, the visitor was at once surrounded by a clamorousthrong of whites and blacks, but the latter outnumbering the former morethan could have been expected, negro transportation-ship as the strangerin port was. But, in one language, and as with one voice, all poured out acommon tale of suffering; in which the negresses, of whom there were nota few, exceeded the others in their dolorous vehemence. The scurvy, togetherwith a fever, had swept off a great part of their number, more especiallythe Spaniards. Off Cape Horn, they had narrowly escaped shipwreck; then,for days together, they had lain tranced without wind; their provisions werelow; their water next to none; their lips that moment were baked.

While Captain Delano was thus made the mark of all eager tongues, hisone eager glance took in all the faces, with every other object about him.

Always upon first boarding a large and populous ship at sea, espe-cially a foreign one, with a nondescript crew such as Lascars or Manillamen, the impression varies in a peculiar way from that produced by firstentering a strange house with strange inmates in a strange land. Bothhouse and ship, the one by its walls and blinds, the other by its high bul-warks like ramparts, hoard from view their interiors till the last moment;but in the case of the ship there is this addition; that the living spectacle itcontains, upon its sudden and complete disclosure, has, in contrast withthe blank ocean which zones it, something of the effect of enchantment.The ship seems unreal; these strange costumes, gestures, and faces, but ashadowy tableau just emerged from the deep, which directly must receiveback what it gave.

Perhaps it was some such influence as above is attempted to bedescribed, which, in Captain Delano’s mind, heightened whatever, upon astaid scrutiny, might have seemed unusual; especially the conspicuous fig-ures of four elderly grizzled negroes, their heads like black, doddered wil-low tops, who, in venerable contrast to the tumult below them, were couchedsphynx-like, one on the starboard cat-head, another on the larboard, andthe remaining pair face to face on the opposite bulwarks above the main-chains. They each had bits of unstranded old junk in their hands, and, witha sort of stoical self-content, were picking the junk into oakum,7 a smallheap of which lay by their sides. They accompanied the task with a contin-uous, low, monotonous chant; droning and druling away like so many gray-headed bag-pipers playing a funeral march.

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7. doddered: Having lost the top branches, thus looking like a tree stump. Junk: An old pieceof discarded rope. Oakum: Fibers taken or picked from twisted strands of old rope, then rewo-ven or used for joints and caulking.

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The quarter-deck rose into an ample elevated poop, upon the forwardverge of which, lifted, like the oakum-pickers, some eight feet above thegeneral throng, sat along in a row, separated by regular spaces, the cross-legged figures of six other blacks; each with a rusty hatchet in his hand,which, with a bit of brick and a rag, he was engaged like a scullion in scour-ing; while between each two was a small stack of hatchets, their rustededges turned forward awaiting a like operation. Though occasionally thefour oakum-pickers would briefly address some person or persons in thecrowd below, yet the six hatchet-polishers neither spoke to others, norbreathed a whisper among themselves, but sat intent upon their task, exceptat intervals, when, with the peculiar love in negroes of uniting industrywith pastime, two and two they sideways clashed their hatchets together,like cymbals, with a barbarous din. All six, unlike the generality, had theraw aspect of unsophisticated Africans.

But that first comprehensive glance which took in those ten figures,with scores less conspicuous, rested but an instant upon them, as, impa-tient of the hubbub of voices, the visitor turned in quest of whomsoever itmight be that commanded the ship.

But as if not unwilling to let nature make known her own case amonghis suffering charge, or else in despair of restraining it for the time, theSpanish captain, a gentlemanly, reserved-looking, and rather young manto a stranger’s eye, dressed with singular richness, but bearing plain tracesof recent sleepless cares and disquietudes, stood passively by, leaningagainst the main-mast, at one moment casting a dreary, spiritless lookupon his excited people, at the next an unhappy glance toward his visitor.By his side stood a black of small stature, in whose rude face, as occasion-ally, like a shepherd’s dog, he mutely turned it up into the Spaniard’s, sor-row and affection were equally blended.

Struggling through the throng, the American advanced to the Spaniard,assuring him of his sympathies, and offering to render whatever assistancemight be in his power. To which the Spaniard returned, for the present, butgrave and ceremonious acknowledgments, his national formality duskedby the saturnine mood of ill health.

But losing no time in mere compliments, Captain Delano returningto the gangway, had his baskets of fish brought up; and as the wind stillcontinued light, so that some hours at least must elapse ere the ship couldbe brought to the anchorage, he bade his men return to the sealer, andfetch back as much water as the whale-boat could carry, with whatever softbread the steward might have, all the remaining pumpkins on board, witha box of sugar, and a dozen of his private bottles of cider.

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Not many minutes after the boat’s pushing off, to the vexation of all, thewind entirely died away, and the tide turning, began drifting back the shiphelplessly seaward. But trusting this would not long last, Captain Delanosought with good hopes to cheer up the strangers, feeling no small satis-faction that, with persons in their condition he could — thanks to his fre-quent voyages along the Spanish main — converse with some freedom intheir native tongue.

While left alone with them, he was not long in observing some thingstending to heighten his first impressions; but surprise was lost in pity,both for the Spaniards and blacks, alike evidently reduced from scarcity ofwater and provisions; while long-continued suffering seemed to have broughtout the less good-natured qualities of the negroes, besides, at the sametime, impairing the Spaniard’s authority over them. But, under the circum-stances, precisely this condition of things was to have been anticipated. Inarmies, navies, cities, or families, in nature herself, nothing more relaxesgood order than misery. Still, Captain Delano was not without the idea,that had Benito Cereno been a man of greater energy, misrule would hardlyhave come to the present pass. But the debility, constitutional or inducedby the hardships, bodily and mental, of the Spanish captain, was too obvi-ous to be overlooked. A prey to settled dejection, as if long mocked withhope he would not now indulge it, even when it had ceased to be a mock,the prospect of that day or evening at furthest, lying at anchor, with plentyof water for his people, and a brother captain to counsel and befriend,seemed in no perceptible degree to encourage him. His mind appearedunstrung, if not still more seriously affected. Shut up in these oaken walls,chained to one dull round of command, whose unconditionality cloyed him,like some hypochondriac abbot he moved slowly about, at times suddenlypausing, starting, or staring, biting his lip, biting his finger-nail, flushing,paling, twitching his beard, with other symptoms of an absent or moodymind. This distempered spirit was lodged, as before hinted, in as distem-pered a frame. He was rather tall, but seemed never to have been robust,and now with nervous suffering was almost worn to a skeleton. A tendencyto some pulmonary complaint appeared to have been lately confirmed. Hisvoice was like that of one with lungs half gone, hoarsely suppressed, ahusky whisper. No wonder that, as in this state he tottered about, his pri-vate servant apprehensively followed him. Sometimes the negro gave hismaster his arm, or took his handkerchief out of his pocket for him; per-forming these and similar offices with that affectionate zeal which trans-mutes into something filial or fraternal acts in themselves but menial; andwhich has gained for the negro the repute of making the most pleasing

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body servant in the world; one, too, whom a master need be on no stifflysuperior terms with, but may treat with familiar trust; less a servant thana devoted companion.

Marking the noisy indocility of the blacks in general, as well as whatseemed the sullen inefficiency of the whites, it was not without humane sat-isfaction that Captain Delano witnessed the steady good conduct of Babo.

But the good conduct of Babo, hardly more than the ill-behavior of oth-ers, seemed to withdraw the half-lunatic Don Benito from his cloudy lan-guor. Not that such precisely was the impression made by the Spaniard onthe mind of his visitor. The Spaniard’s individual unrest was, for the present,but noted as a conspicuous feature in the ship’s general affliction. Still,Captain Delano was not a little concerned at what he could not help takingfor the time to be Don Benito’s unfriendly indifference towards himself. TheSpaniard’s manner, too, conveyed a sort of sour and gloomy disdain, whichhe seemed at no pains to disguise. But this the American in charity ascribedto the harassing effects of sickness, since, in former instances, he had notedthat there are peculiar natures on whom prolonged physical suffering seemsto cancel every social instinct of kindness; as if forced to black bread them-selves, they deemed it but equity that each person coming nigh them should,indirectly, by some slight or affront, be made to partake of their fare.

But ere long Captain Delano bethought him that, indulgent as he wasat the first, in judging the Spaniard, he might not, after all, have exercisedcharity enough. At bottom it was Don Benito’s reserve which displeasedhim; but the same reserve was shown towards all but his faithful personalattendant. Even the formal reports which, according to sea-usage, were, atstated times, made to him by some petty underling, either a white, mulattoor black, he hardly had patience enough to listen to, without betraying con-temptuous aversion. His manner upon such occasions was, in its degree,not unlike that which might be supposed to have been his imperial coun-tryman’s, Charles V.,8 just previous to the anchoritish retirement of thatmonarch from the throne.

This splenetic disrelish of his place was evinced in almost every func-tion pertaining to it. Proud as he was moody, he condescended to no per-sonal mandate. Whatever special orders were necessary, their delivery wasdelegated to his body-servant, who in turn transferred them to their ulti-mate destination, through runners, alert Spanish boys or slave boys, like

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8. Charles V: Born in 1500, he ruled as Charles I, king of Spain (1516–1556), and as Holy Romanemperor (1519–1558). He spent the last two years of his life (1556–1558) in a monastery.

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pages or pilot-fish within easy call continually hovering round Don Benito.So that to have beheld this undemonstrative invalid gliding about, apa-thetic and mute, no landsman could have dreamed that in him was lodgeda dictatorship beyond which, while at sea, there was no earthly appeal.

Thus, the Spaniard, regarded in his reserve, seemed as the involun-tary victim of mental disorder. But, in fact, his reserve might, in some degree,have proceeded from design. If so, then here was evinced the unhealthy cli-max of that icy though conscientious policy, more or less adopted by allcommanders of large ships, which, except in signal emergencies, obliter-ates alike the manifestation of sway with every trace of sociality; trans-forming the man into a block, or rather into a loaded cannon, which, untilthere is call for thunder, has nothing to say.

Viewing him in this light, it seemed but a natural token of the perversehabit induced by a long course of such hard self-restraint, that, notwith-standing the present condition of his ship, the Spaniard should still per-sist in a demeanor, which, however harmless, or, it may be, appropriate, ina well appointed vessel, such as the San Dominick might have been at theoutset of the voyage, was anything but judicious now. But the Spaniardperhaps thought that it was with captains as with gods: reserve, under allevents, must still be their cue. But more probably this appearance of slum-bering dominion might have been but an attempted disguise to consciousimbecility — not deep policy, but shallow device. But be all this as it might,whether Don Benito’s manner was designed or not, the more Captain Delanonoted its pervading reserve, the less he felt uneasiness at any particularmanifestation of that reserve towards himself.

Neither were his thoughts taken up by the captain alone. Wonted tothe quiet orderliness of the sealer’s comfortable family of a crew, the noisyconfusion of the San Dominick’s suffering host repeatedly challenged hiseye. Some prominent breaches not only of discipline but of decency wereobserved. These Captain Delano could not but ascribe, in the main, to theabsence of those subordinate deck-officers to whom, along with higherduties, is entrusted what may be styled the police department of a popu-lous ship. True, the old oakum-pickers appeared at times to act the part ofmonitorial constables to their countrymen, the blacks; but though occa-sionally succeeding in allaying trifling outbreaks now and then betweenman and man, they could do little or nothing toward establishing generalquiet. The San Dominick was in the condition of a transatlantic emigrantship, among whose multitude of living freight are some individuals, doubt-less, as little troublesome as crates and bales; but the friendly remonstrancesof such with their ruder companions are of not so much avail as the unfriendly

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arm of the mate. What the San Dominick wanted was, what the emigrantship has, stern superior officers. But on these decks not so much as a fourthmate was to be seen.

The visitor’s curiosity was roused to learn the particulars of thosemishaps which had brought about such absenteeism, with its consequences;because, though deriving some inkling of the voyage from the wails whichat the first moment had greeted him, yet of the details no clear understand-ing had been had. The best account would, doubtless, be given by the cap-tain. Yet at first the visitor was loth to ask it, unwilling to provoke somedistant rebuff. But plucking up courage, he at last accosted Don Benito,renewing the expression of his benevolent interest, adding, that did he(Captain Delano) but know the particulars of the ship’s misfortunes, hewould, perhaps, be better able in the end to relieve them. Would Don Benitofavor him with the whole story?

Don Benito faltered; then, like some somnambulist suddenly inter-fered with, vacantly stared at his visitor, and ended by looking down on thedeck. He maintained this posture so long, that Captain Delano, almost equallydisconcerted, and involuntarily almost as rude, turned suddenly from him,walking forward to accost one of the Spanish seamen for the desired infor-mation. But he had hardly gone five paces, when with a sort of eagernessDon Benito invited him back, regretting his momentary absence of mind,and professing readiness to gratify him.

While most part of the story was being given, the two captains stoodon the after part of the main-deck, a privileged spot, no one being near butthe servant.

“It is now a hundred and ninety days,” began the Spaniard, in hishusky whisper, “that this ship, well officered and well manned, with sev-eral cabin passengers — some fifty Spaniards in all — sailed from BuenosAyres bound to Lima, with a general cargo, hardware, Paraguay tea and thelike — and,” pointing forward, “that parcel of negroes, now not more than ahundred and fifty, as you see, but then numbering over three hundredsouls. Off Cape Horn we had heavy gales. In one moment, by night, three ofmy best officers, with fifteen sailors, were lost, with the main-yard; thespar snapping under them in the slings, as they sought, with heavers, tobeat down the icy sail. To lighten the hull, the heavier sacks of mate9 werethrown into the sea, with most of the water-pipes lashed on deck at thetime. And this last necessity it was, combined with the prolonged detentions

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9. mate: Tea made from a South American shrub.

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afterwards experienced, which eventually brought about our chief causesof suffering. When —”

Here there was a sudden fainting attack of his cough, brought on, nodoubt, by his mental distress. His servant sustained him, and drawing acordial from his pocket placed it to his lips. He a little revived. But unwill-ing to leave him unsupported while yet imperfectly restored, the black withone arm still encircled his master, at the same time keeping his eye fixedon his face, as if to watch for the first sign of complete restoration, orrelapse, as the event might prove.

The Spaniard proceeded, but brokenly and obscurely, as one in a dream.—“Oh, my God! rather than pass through what I have, with joy I would

have hailed the most terrible gales; but —”His cough returned and with increased violence; this subsiding, with

reddened lips and closed eyes he fell heavily against his supporter.“His mind wanders. He was thinking of the plague that followed the

gales,” plaintively sighed the servant; “my poor, poor master!” wringingone hand, and with the other wiping the mouth. “But be patient, Señor,”again turning to Captain Delano, “these fits do not last long; master willsoon be himself.”

Don Benito reviving, went on; but as this portion of the story was verybrokenly delivered, the substance only will here be set down.

It appeared that after the ship had been many days tossed in stormsoff the Cape, the scurvy broke out, carrying off numbers of the whites andblacks. When at last they had worked round into the Pacific, their sparsand sails were so damaged, and so inadequately handled by the survivingmariners, most of whom were become invalids, that, unable to lay hernortherly course by the wind, which was powerful, the unmanageable shipfor successive days and nights was blown northwestward, where the breezesuddenly deserted her, in unknown waters, to sultry calms. The absence of the water-pipes now proved as fatal to life as before their presence had menaced it. Induced, or at least aggravated, by the more than scantyallowance of water, a malignant fever followed the scurvy; with the exces-sive heat of the lengthened calm, making such short work of it as to sweepaway, as by billows, whole families of the Africans, and a yet larger num-ber, proportionably, of the Spaniards, including, by a luckless fatality,every remaining officer on board. Consequently, in the smart west windseventually following the calm, the already rent sails having to be simplydropped, not furled, at need, had been gradually reduced to the beggar’srags they were now. To procure substitutes for his lost sailors, as well assupplies of water and sails, the captain at the earliest opportunity had made

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for Baldivia [Valdivia], the southermost civilized port of Chili and SouthAmerica; but upon nearing the coast the thick weather had prevented himfrom so much as sighting that harbor. Since which period, almost withouta crew, and almost without canvas and almost without water, and at inter-vals giving its added dead to the sea, the San Dominick had been battle-dored about by contrary winds, inveigled by currents, or grown weedy incalms. Like a man lost in woods, more than once she had doubled upon herown track.

“But throughout these calamities,” huskily continued Don Benito,painfully turning in the half embrace of his servant, “I have to thank thosenegroes you see, who, though to your inexperienced eyes appearing unruly,have, indeed, conducted themselves with less of restlessness than eventheir owner could have thought possible under such circumstances.”

Here he again fell faintly back. Again his mind wandered: but he ral-lied, and less obscurely proceeded.

“Yes, their owner was quite right in assuring me that no fetters wouldbe needed with his blacks; so that while, as is wont in this transportation,those negroes have always remained upon deck — not thrust below, as inthe Guinea-men — they have, also, from the beginning, been freely permit-ted to range within given bounds at their pleasure.”

Once more the faintness returned — his mind roved — but, recovering,he resumed:

“But it is Babo here to whom, under God, I owe not only my ownpreservation, but likewise to him, chiefly, the merit is due, of pacifying hismore ignorant brethren, when at intervals tempted to murmurings.”

“Ah, master,” sighed the black, bowing his face, “don’t speak of me;Babo is nothing; what Babo has done was but duty.”

“Faithful fellow!” cried Capt. Delano. “Don Benito, I envy you such afriend; slave I cannot call him.”

As master and man stood before him, the black upholding the white,Captain Delano could not but bethink him of the beauty of that relationshipwhich could present such a spectacle of fidelity on the one hand and confi-dence on the other. The scene was heightened by the contrast in dress,denoting their relative positions. The Spaniard wore a loose Chili jacket ofdark velvet; white small clothes and stockings, with silver buckles at theknee and instep; a high-crowned sombrero, of fine grass; a slender sword,silver mounted, hung from a knot in his sash; the last being an almostinvariable adjunct, more for utility than ornament, of a South Americangentleman’s dress to this hour. Excepting when his occasional nervous con-tortions brought about disarray, there was a certain precision in his attire,

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curiously at variance with the unsightly disorder around; especially in the belittered Ghetto,10 forward of the main-mast, wholly occupied by the blacks.

The servant wore nothing but wide trowsers, apparently, from theircoarseness and patches, made out of some old topsail; they were clean, andconfined at the waist by a bit of unstranded rope, which, with his com-posed, deprecatory air at times, made him look something like a beggingfriar of St. Francis.11

However unsuitable for the time and place, at least in the blunt-thinkingAmerican’s eyes, and however strangely surviving in the midst of all hisafflictions, the toilette of Don Benito might not, in fashion at least, havegone beyond the style of the day among South Americans of his class.Though on the present voyage sailing from Buenos Ayres, he had avowedhimself a native and resident of Chili, whose inhabitants had not so gen-erally adopted the plain coat and once plebeian pantaloons; but, with abecoming modification, adhered to their provincial costume, picturesqueas any in the world. Still, relatively to the pale history of the voyage, andhis own pale face, there seemed something so incongruous in the Spaniard’sapparel, as almost to suggest the image of an invalid courtier tottering aboutLondon streets in the time of the plague.

The portion of the narrative which, perhaps, most excited interest, aswell as some surprise, considering the latitudes in question, was the longcalms spoken of, and more particularly the ship’s so long drifting about.Without communicating the opinion, of course, the American could notbut impute at least part of the detentions both to clumsy seamanship andfaulty navigation. Eying Don Benito’s small, yellow hands, he easily inferredthat the young captain had not got into command at the hawsehole, butthe cabin-window; and if so, why wonder at incompetence, in youth, sick-ness, and gentility united?

But drowning criticism in compassion, after a fresh repetition of hissympathies, Captain Delano having heard out his story, not only engaged,as in the first place, to see Don Benito and his people supplied in theirimmediate bodily needs, but, also, now further promised to assist him inprocuring a large permanent supply of water, as well as some sails and rig-ging; and, though it would involve no small embarrassment to himself, yet

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10. Ghetto: A historical reference to the area of Rome to which Jews were restricted in theRenaissance and later.11. begging friar of St. Francis: Whereas Dominicans were known as preaching friars, theFranciscans adopted a vow of poverty and made their way in the world through begging.

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he would spare three of his best seamen for temporary deck officers; sothat without delay the ship might proceed to Conception, there fully torefit for Lima, her destined port.

Such generosity was not without its effect, even upon the invalid. Hisface lighted up; eager and hectic, he met the honest glance of his visitor.With gratitude he seemed overcome.

“This excitement is bad for master,” whispered the servant, takinghis arm, and with soothing words gently drawing him aside.

When Don Benito returned, the American was pained to observe thathis hopefulness, like the sudden kindling in his cheek, was but febrile andtransient.

Ere long, with a joyless mien, looking up towards the poop, the hostinvited his guest to accompany him there, for the benefit of what little breathof wind might be stirring.

As during the telling of the story, Captain Delano had once or twicestarted at the occasional cymballing of the hatchet-polishers, wonderingwhy such an interruption should be allowed, especially in that part of theship, and in the ears of an invalid; and moreover, as the hatchets had any-thing but an attractive look, and the handlers of them still less so, it was,therefore, to tell the truth, not without some lurking reluctance, or evenshrinking, it may be, that Captain Delano, with apparent complaisance, acqui-esced in his host’s invitation. The more so, since with an untimely capriceof punctilio, rendered distressing by his cadaverous aspect, Don Benito,with Castilian bows, solemnly insisted upon his guest’s preceding him upthe ladder leading to the elevation; where one on each side of the last step,sat for armorial supporters and sentries two of the ominous file. Gingerlyenough stepped good Captain Delano between them, and in the instant ofleaving them behind, like one running the gauntlet, he felt an apprehen-sive twitch in the calves of his legs.

But when, facing about, he saw the whole file, like so many organ-grinders, still stupidly intent on their work, unmindful of everything beside,he could not but smile at his late fidgeting panic.

Presently, while standing with his host, looking forward upon the decksbelow, he was struck by one of those instances of insubordination previ-ously alluded to. Three black boys, with two Spanish boys, were sittingtogether on the hatches, scraping a rude wooden platter, in which somescanty mess had recently been cooked. Suddenly, one of the black boys,enraged at a word dropped by one of his white companions, seized a knife,and though called to forbear by one of the oakum-pickers, struck the ladover the head, inflicting a gash from which blood flowed.

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In amazement, Captain Delano inquired what this meant. To whichthe pale Don Benito dully muttered, that it was merely the sport of the lad.

“Pretty serious sport, truly,” rejoined Captain Delano. “Had such athing happened on board the Bachelor’s Delight, instant punishment wouldhave followed.”

At these words the Spaniard turned upon the American one of his sud-den, staring, half-lunatic looks; then relapsing into his torpor, answered,“Doubtless, doubtless, Señor.”

Is it, thought Captain Delano, that this hapless man is one of thosepaper captains I’ve known, who by policy wink at what by power they can-not put down? I know no sadder sight than a commander who has little ofcommand but the name.

“I should think, Don Benito,” he now said, glancing towards the oakum-picker who had sought to interfere with the boys, “that you would find itadvantageous to keep all your blacks employed, especially the younger ones,no matter at what useless task, and no matter what happens to the ship. Why,even with my little band, I find such a course indispensable. I once kept a crewon my quarter-deck thrumming mats for my cabin, when, for three days, I hadgiven up my ship — mats, men, and all — for a speedy loss, owing to the vio-lence of a gale, in which we could do nothing but helplessly drive before it.”

“Doubtless, doubtless,” muttered Don Benito.“But,” continued Captain Delano, again glancing upon the oakum-

pickers and then at the hatchet-polishers, near by, “I see you keep some atleast of your host employed.”

“Yes,” was again the vacant response.“Those old men there, shaking their pows12 from their pulpits,” con-

tinued Captain Delano, pointing to the oakum-pickers, “seem to act thepart of old dominies to the rest, little heeded as their admonitions are attimes. Is this voluntary on their part, Don Benito, or have you appointedthem shepherds to your flock of black sheep?”

“What posts they fill, I appointed them,” rejoined the Spaniard, in anacrid tone, as if resenting some supposed satiric reflection.

“And these others, these Ashantee conjurors here,” continued CaptainDelano, rather uneasily eying the brandished steel of the hatchet-polishers,where in spots it had been brought to a shine, “this seems a curious busi-ness they are at, Don Benito?”

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12. pows: A Scottish dialect version of “polls” or “heads.” Melville puns here on “dominies”(recurring to the references to Dominican orders and Santo Domingo) and “black sheep”(referring both to wicked sinners and African slaves).

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“In the gales we met,” answered the Spaniard, “what of our generalcargo was not thrown overboard was much damaged by the brine. Sincecoming into calm weather, I have had several cases of knives and hatchetsdaily brought up for overhauling and cleaning.”

“A prudent idea, Don Benito. You are part owner of ship and cargo, I presume; but not of the slaves, perhaps?”

“I am owner of all you see,” impatiently returned Don Benito, “except themain company of blacks, who belonged to my late friend, Alexandro Aranda.”

As he mentioned this name, his air was heart-broken; his knees shook:his servant supported him.

Thinking he divined the cause of such unusual emotion, to confirmhis surmise, Captain Delano, after a pause, said, “And may I ask, Don Benito,whether — since awhile ago you spoke of some cabin passengers — the friend,whose loss so afflicts you at the outset of the voyage accompanied hisblacks?”

“Yes.”“But died of the fever?”“Died of the fever. — Oh, could I but —”Again quivering, the Spaniard paused.“Pardon me,” said Captain Delano lowly, “but I think that, by a sym-

pathetic experience, I conjecture, Don Benito, what it is that gives the keeneredge to your grief. It was once my hard fortune to lose at sea a dear friend,my own brother, then supercargo. Assured of the welfare of his spirit, itsdeparture I could have borne like a man; but that honest eye, that honesthand — both of which had so often met mine — and that warm heart; all,all — like scraps to the dogs — to throw all to the sharks! It was then I vowednever to have for fellow-voyager a man I loved, unless, unbeknown to him,I had provided every requisite, in case of a fatality, for embalming his mor-tal part for interment on shore. Were your friend’s remains now on boardthis ship, Don Benito, not thus strangely would the mention of his nameaffect you.”

“On board this ship?” echoed the Spaniard. Then, with horrified ges-tures, as directed against some specter, he unconsciously fell into the readyarms of his attendant, who, with a silent appeal toward Captain Delano,seemed beseeching him not again to broach a theme so unspeakably dis-tressing to his master.

This poor fellow now, thought the pained American, is the victim of thatsad superstition which associates goblins with the deserted body of man,as ghosts with an abandoned house. How unlike are we made! What to me,in like case, would have been a solemn satisfaction, the bare suggestion,

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even, terrifies the Spaniard into this trance. Poor Alexandro Aranda! whatwould you say could you here see your friend — who, on former voyages,when you for months were left behind, has, I dare say, often longed, andlonged, for one peep at you — now transported with terror at the least thoughtof having you anyway nigh him.

At this moment, with a dreary grave-yard toll, betokening a flaw, theship’s forecastle bell, smote by one of the grizzled oakum-pickers, pro-claimed ten o’clock through the leaden calm; when Captain Delano’s atten-tion was caught by the moving figure of a gigantic black, emerging fromthe general crowd below, and slowly advancing towards the elevated poop.An iron collar was about his neck, from which depended a chain, thricewound round his body; the terminating links padlocked together at a broadband of iron, his girdle.

“How like a mute Atufal moves,” murmured the servant.The black mounted the steps of the poop, and, like a brave prisoner,

brought up to receive sentence, stood in unquailing muteness before DonBenito, now recovered from his attack.

At the first glimpse of his approach, Don Benito had started, a resent-ful shadow swept over his face; and, as with the sudden memory of boot-less rage, his white lips glued together.

This is some mulish mutineer, thought Captain Delano, surveying,not without a mixture of admiration, the colossal form of the negro.

“See, he waits your question, master,” said the servant.Thus reminded, Don Benito, nervously averting his glance, as if shun-

ning, by anticipation, some rebellious response, in a disconcerted voice,thus spoke: —

“Atufal, will you ask my pardon now?”The black was silent.“Again, master,” murmured the servant, with bitter upbraiding eying

his countryman, “Again, master; he will bend to master yet.”“Answer,” said Don Benito, still averting his glance, “say but the one

world pardon, and your chains shall be off.”Upon this, the black, slowly raising both arms, let them lifelessly fall,

his links clanking, his head bowed; as much as to say, “no, I am content.”“Go,” said Don Benito, with inkept and unknown emotion.Deliberately as he had come, the black obeyed.“Excuse me, Don Benito,” said Captain Delano, “but this scene sur-

prises me; what means it, pray?”“It means that that negro alone, of all the band, has given me peculiar

cause of offense. I have put him in chains; I — ”

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Here he paused; his hand to his head, as if there were a swimmingthere, or a sudden bewilderment of memory had come over him; but meet-ing his servant’s kindly glance seemed reassured, and proceeded: —

“I could not scourge such a form. But I told him he must ask my pardon.As yet he has not. At my command, every two hours he stands before me.”

“And how long has this been?”“Some sixty days.”“And obedient in all else? And respectful?”“Yes.”“Upon my conscience, then,” exclaimed Captain Delano, impulsively,

“he has a royal spirit in him, this fellow.”“He may have some right to it,” bitterly returned Don Benito, “he says

he was king in his own land.”“Yes,” said the servant, entering a word, “those slits in Atufal’s ears

once held wedges of gold; but poor Babo here, in his own land, was only apoor slave; a black man’s slave was Babo, who now is the white’s.”

Somewhat annoyed by these conversational familiarities, CaptainDelano turned curiously upon the attendant, then glanced inquiringly athis master; but, as if long wonted to these little informalities, neither mas-ter nor man seemed to understand him.

“What, pray, was Atufal’s offense, Don Benito?” asked Captain Delano;“if it was not something very serious, take a fool’s advice, and, in view ofhis general docility, as well as in some natural respect for his spirit, remithim his penalty.”

“No, no, master never will do that,” here murmured the servant to him-self, “proud Atufal must first ask master’s pardon. The slave there carriesthe padlock, but master here carries the key.”

His attention thus directed, Captain Delano now noticed for the firsttime that, suspended by a slender silken cord, from Don Benito’s neck hunga key. At once, from the servant’s muttered syllables divining the key’s pur-pose, he smiled and said: — “So, Don Benito — padlock and key — significantsymbols, truly.”

Biting his lip, Don Benito faltered.Though the remark of Captain Delano, a man of such native simplic-

ity as to be incapable of satire or irony, had been dropped in playful allu-sion to the Spaniard’s singularly evidenced lordship over the black; yet thehypochondriac seemed in some way to have taken it as a malicious reflec-tion upon his confessed inability thus far to break down, at least, on a ver-bal summons, the entrenched will of the slave. Deploring this supposedmisconception, yet despairing of correcting it, Captain Delano shifted the

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subject; but finding his companion more than ever withdrawn, as if stillsourly digesting the lees of the presumed affront above-mentioned, by-and-by Captain Delano likewise became less talkative, oppressed, against hisown will, by what seemed the secret vindictiveness of the morbidly sensi-tive Spaniard. But the good sailor himself, of a quite contrary disposition,refrained, on his part, alike from the appearance as from the feeling ofresentment, and if silent, was only so from contagion.

Presently the Spaniard, assisted by his servant, somewhat discourte-ously crossed over from his guest; a procedure which, sensibly enough,might have been allowed to pass for idle caprice of ill-humor, had not mas-ter and man, lingering round the corner of the elevated skylight, began[begun] whispering together in low voices. This was unpleasing. And more:the moody air of the Spaniard, which at times had not been without a sortof valetudinarian13 stateliness, now seemed anything but dignified; while themenial familiarity of the servant lost its original charm of simple-heartedattachment.

In his embarrassment, the visitor turned his face to the other side of theship. By so doing, his glance accidentally fell on a young Spanish sailor, acoil of rope in his hand, just stepped from the deck to the first round of themizzen-rigging. Perhaps the man would not have been particularly noticed,were it not that, during his ascent to one of the yards, he, with a sort of covertintentness, kept his eye fixed on Captain Delano, from whom, presently, itpassed, as if by a natural sequence, to the two whisperers.

His own attention thus redirected to that quarter, Captain Delano gavea slight start. From something in Don Benito’s manner just then, it seemedas if the visitor had, at least partly, been the subject of the withdrawn con-sultation going on — a conjecture as little agreeable to the guest as it waslittle flattering to the host.

The singular alternations of courtesy and ill-breeding in the Spanishcaptain were unaccountable, except on one of two suppositions — innocentlunacy, or wicked imposture.

But the first idea, though it might naturally have occurred to an indif-ferent observer, and, in some respect, had not hitherto been wholly a strangerto Captain Delano’s mind, yet, now that, in an incipient way, he began toregard the stranger’s conduct something in the light of an intentionalaffront, of course the idea of lunacy was virtually vacated. But if not a lunatic,what then? Under the circumstances, would a gentleman, nay, any honest

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13. valetudinarian: Having to do with or denoting ill health.

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boor, act the part now acted by his host? The man was an impostor. Somelow-born adventurer, masquerading as an oceanic grandee; yet so ignorantof the first requisites of mere gentlemanhood as to be betrayed into the present remarkable indecorum. That strange ceremoniousness, too, at othertimes evinced, seemed not uncharacteristic of one playing a part above hisreal level. Benito Cereno — Don Benito Cereno — a sounding name. One, too,at that period, not unknown, in the surname, to supercargoes and sea cap-tains trading along the Spanish Main, as belonging to one of the most enter-prising and extensive mercantile families in all those provinces; severalmembers of it having titles; a sort of Castilian Rothschild, with a noblebrother, or cousin, in every great trading town of South America. The allegedDon Benito was in early manhood, about twenty-nine or thirty. To assume asort of roving cadetship in the maritime affairs of such a house, what morelikely scheme for a young knave of talent and spirit? But the Spaniard was apale invalid. Never mind. For even to the degree of simulating mortal dis-ease, the craft of some tricksters had been known to attain. To think that,under the aspect of infantile weakness, the most savage energies might becouched — those velvets of the Spaniard but the silky paw to his fangs.

From no train of thought did these fancies come; not from within, butfrom without; suddenly, too, and in one throng, like hoar frost; yet as soon tovanish as the mild sun of Captain Delano’s good-nature regained its meridian.

Glancing over once more towards his host — whose side-face, revealedabove the skylight, was now turned towards him — he was struck by theprofile, whose clearness of cut was refined by the thinness incident to ill-health, as well as ennobled about the chin by the beard. Away with suspi-cion. He was a true off-shoot of a true hidalgo Cereno.

Relieved by these and other better thoughts, the visitor, lightly hum-ming a tune, now began indifferently pacing the poop, so as not to betray toDon Benito that he had at all mistrusted incivility, much less duplicity; forsuch mistrust would yet be proved illusory, and by the event; though, for thepresent, the circumstance which had provoked that distrust remained unex-plained. But when that little mystery should have been cleared up, CaptainDelano thought he might extremely regret it, did he allow Don Benito tobecome aware that he had indulged in ungenerous surmises. In short, to theSpaniard’s black-letter text,14 it was best, for awhile, to leave open margin.

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14. black-letter text: An early typeface, introduced by printers in 1600, that resembled hand-written medieval texts.

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Presently, his pale face twitching and overcast, the Spaniard, stillsupported by his attendant, moved over towards his guest, when, with evenmore than his usual embarrassment, and a strange sort of intriguing into-nation in his husky whisper, the following conversation began: —

“Señor, may I ask how long you have lain at this isle?”“Oh, but a day or two, Don Benito.”“And from what port are you last?”“Canton.”“And there, Señor, you exchanged your seal-skins for teas and silks, I

think you said?”“Yes. Silks, mostly.”“And the balance you took in specie, perhaps?”Captain Delano, fidgeting a little, answered —“Yes; some silver; not a very great deal, though.”“Ah — well. May I ask how many men have you, Señor?”Captain Delano slightly started, but answered —“About five-and-twenty, all told.”“And at present, Señor, all on board, I suppose?”“All on board, Don Benito,” replied the Captain, now with satisfaction.“And will be to-night, Señor?”At this last question, following so many pertinacious ones, for the

soul of him Captain Delano could not but look very earnestly at the ques-tioner, who, instead of meeting the glance, with every token of craven dis-composure dropped his eyes to the deck; presenting an unworthy contrastto his servant, who, just then, was kneeling at his feet, adjusting a looseshoe-buckle; his disengaged face meantime, with humble curiosity, turnedopenly up into his master’s downcast one.

The Spaniard, still with a guilty shuffle, repeated his question: —“And — and will be to-night, Señor?”“Yes, for aught I know,” returned Captain Delano, — “but nay,” rally-

ing himself into fearless truth, “some of them talked of going off on anotherfishing party about midnight.”

“Your ships generally go — go more or less armed, I believe, Señor?”“Oh, a six-pounder or two, in case of emergency,” was the intrepidly

indifferent reply, “with a small stock of muskets, sealing-spears, and cut-lasses, you know.”

As he thus responded, Captain Delano again glanced at Don Benito,but the latter’s eyes were averted; while abruptly and awkwardly shiftingthe subject, he made some peevish allusion to the calm, and then, without

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apology, once more, with his attendant, withdrew to the opposite bulwarks,where the whispering was resumed.

At this moment, and ere Captain Delano could cast a cool thought uponwhat had just passed, the young Spanish sailor before mentioned was seendescending from the rigging. In act of stooping over to spring inboard tothe deck, his voluminous, unconfined frock, or shirt, of coarse woollen, muchspotted with tar, opened out far down the chest, revealing a soiled undergarment of what seemed the finest linen, edged, about the neck, with a nar-row blue ribbon, sadly faded and worn. At this moment the young sailor’s eyewas again fixed on the whisperers, and Captain Delano thought he observeda lurking significance in it, as if silent signs of some Freemason15 sort hadthat instant been interchanged.

This once more impelled his own glance in the direction of Don Benito,and, as before, he could not but infer that himself formed the subject of theconference. He paused. The sound of the hatchet-polishing fell on his ears.He cast another swift side-look at the two. They had the air of conspirators.In connection with the late questionings and the incident of the youngsailor, these things now begat such return of involunt.ary suspicion, thatthe singular guilelessness of the American could not endure it. Pluckingup a gay and humorous expression, he crossed over to the two rapidly, saying: — “Ha, Don Benito, your black here seems high in your trust; a sortof privy-counselor, in fact.”

Upon this, the servant looked up with a good-natured grin, but themaster started as from a venomous bite. It was a moment or two before theSpaniard sufficiently recovered himself to reply; which he did, at last, withcold constraint: — “Yes, Señor, I have trust in Babo.”

Here Babo, changing his previous grin of mere animal humor into anintelligent smile, not ungratefully eyed his master.

Finding that the Spaniard now stood silent and reserved, as if invol-untarily, or purposely giving hint that his guest’s proximity was inconven-ient just then, Captain Delano, unwilling to appear uncivil even to incivilityitself, made some trivial remark and moved off; again and again turningover in his mind the mysterious demeanor of Don Benito Cereno.

He had descended from the poop, and, wrapped in thought, was passingnear a dark hatchway, leading down into the steerage, when, perceiving

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15. Freemason: A member of a secret fraternal organization founded in the seventeenth cen-tury to protect the history and symbols of medieval craft guilds. By the nineteenth century inAmerica, this organization was associated by some Americans with antidemocratic andheretical movements in Europe.

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motion there, he looked to see what moved. The same instant there was asparkle in the shadowy hatchway, and he saw one of the Spanish sailorsprowling there hurriedly placing his hand in the bosom of his frock, as ifhiding something. Before the man could have been certain who it was thatwas passing, he slunk below out of sight. But enough was seen of him tomake it sure that he was the same young sailor before noticed in the rigging.

What was that which so sparkled? thought Captain Delano. It was nolamp — no match — no live coal. Could it have been a jewel? But how comesailors with jewels? — or with silk-trimmed under-shirts either? Has he beenrobbing the trunks of the dead cabin passengers? But if so, he would hardlywear one of the stolen articles on board ship here. Ah, ah — if now that was,indeed, a secret sign I saw passing between this suspicious fellow and hiscaptain awhile since; if I could only be certain that in my uneasiness mysenses did not deceive me, then —

Here, passing from one suspicious thing to another, his mind revolvedthe point of the strange questions put to him concerning his ship.

By a curious coincidence, as each point was recalled, the black wiz-ards of Ashantee would strike up with their hatchets, as in ominous commenton the white stranger’s thoughts. Pressed by such enigmas and portents, itwould have been almost against nature, had not, even into the least dis-trustful heart, some ugly misgivings obtruded.

Observing the ship now helplessly fallen into a current, with enchantedsails, drifting with increased rapidity seaward; and noting that, from a latelyintercepted projection of the land, the sealer was hidden, the stout marinerbegan to quake at thoughts which he barely durst confess to himself.Above all, he began to feel a ghostly dread of Don Benito. And yet when heroused himself, dilated his chest, felt himself strong on his legs, and coollyconsidered it — what did all these phantoms amount to?

Had the Spaniard any sinister scheme, it must have reference not somuch to him (Captain Delano) as to his ship (the Bachelor’s Delight). Hencethe present drifting away of the one ship from the other, instead of favor-ing any such possible scheme, was, for the time at least, opposed to it.Clearly any suspicion, combining such contradictions, must need be delu-sive. Beside, was it not absurd to think of a vessel in distress — a vessel bysickness almost dismanned of her crew — a vessel whose inmates wereparched for water — was it not a thousand times absurd that such a craftshould, at present, be of a piratical character; or her commander, either forhimself or those under him, cherish any desire but for speedy relief andrefreshment? But then, might not general distress, and thirst in particular,be affected? And might not that same undiminished Spanish crew, alleged

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to have perished off to a remnant, be at that very moment lurking in thehold? On heart-broken pretense of entreating a cup of cold water, fiends inhuman form had got into lonely dwellings, nor retired until a dark deed hadbeen done. And among the Malay pirates, it was no unusual thing to lureships after them into their treacherous harbors, or entice boarders from adeclared enemy at sea, by the spectacle of thinly manned or vacant decks,beneath which prowled a hundred spears with yellow arms ready to upthrustthem through the mats. Not that Captain Delano had entirely credited suchthings. He had heard of them — and now, as stories, they recurred. The pres-ent destination of the ship was the anchorage. There she would be near hisown vessel. Upon gaining that vicinity, might not the San Dominick, like aslumbering volcano,16 suddenly let loose energies now hid?

He recalled the Spaniard’s manner while telling his story. There was agloomy hesitancy and subterfuge about it. It was just the manner of one mak-ing up his tale for evil purposes, as he goes. But if that story was not true, whatwas the truth? That the ship had unlawfully come into the Spaniard’s posses-sion? But in many of its details, especially in reference to the more calamitousparts, such as the fatalities among the seamen, the consequent prolongedbeating about, the past sufferings from obstinate calms, and still continuedsuffering from thirst; in all these points, as well as others, Don Benito’s storyhad been corroborated not only by the wailing ejaculations of the indiscrimi-nate multitude, white and black, but likewise — what seemed impossible to becounterfeit — by the very expression and play of every human feature, whichCaptain Delano saw. If Don Benito’s story was throughout an invention, thenevery soul on board, down to the youngest negress, was his carefully drilledrecruit in the plot: an incredible inference. And yet, if there was ground formistrusting his veracity, that inference was a legitimate one.

But those questions of the Spaniard. There, indeed, one might pause.Did they not seem put with much the same object with which the burglaror assassin, by day-time, reconnoitres the walls of a house? But, with illpurposes, to solicit such information openly of the chief person endangered,and so, in effect, setting him on his guard; how unlikely a procedure wasthat? Absurd, then, to suppose that those questions had been prompted byevil designs. Thus, the same conduct, which, in this instance, had raisedthe alarm, served to dispel it. In short, scarce any suspicion or uneasiness,however apparently reasonable at the time, which was not now, with equalapparent reason, dismissed.

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16. slumbering volcano: Phrase used in the title of a speech by Frederick Douglass in April 1849.

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At last he began to laugh at his former forebodings; and laugh at thestrange ship for, in its aspect someway siding with them, as it were; andlaugh, too, at the odd-looking blacks, particularly those old scissors-grinders,the Ashantees; and those bed-ridden old knitting-women, the oakum-pickers;and almost at the dark Spaniard himself, the central hobgoblin of all.

For the rest, whatever in a serious way seemed enigmatical, was nowgood-naturedly explained away by the thought that, for the most part, thepoor invalid scarcely knew what he was about; either sulking in blackvapors, or putting idle questions without sense or object. Evidently, for thepresent, the man was not fit to be entrusted with the ship. On some benev-olent plea withdrawing the command from him, Captain Delano would yethave to send her to Conception, in charge of his second mate, a worthy per-son and good navigator — a plan not more convenient for the San Dominickthan for Don Benito; for, relieved from all anxiety, keeping wholly to hiscabin, the sick man, under the good nursing of his servant, would proba-bly, by the end of the passage, be in a measure restored to health, and withthat he should also be restored to authority.

Such were the American’s thoughts. They were tranquilizing. Therewas a difference between the idea of Don Benito’s darkly pre-ordainingCaptain Delano’s fate, and Captain Delano’s lightly arranging Don Benito’s.Nevertheless, it was not without something of relief that the good seamanpresently perceived his whale-boat in the distance. Its absence had beenprolonged by unexpected detention at the sealer’s side, as well as its return-ing trip lengthened by the continual recession of the goal.

The advancing speck was observed by the blacks. Their shouts attractedthe attention of Don Benito, who, with a return of courtesy, approachingCaptain Delano, expressed satisfaction at the coming of some supplies, slightand temporary as they must necessarily prove.

Captain Delano responded; but while doing so, his attention was drawnto something passing on the deck below: among the crowd climbing thelandward bulwarks, anxiously watching the coming boat, two blacks, to allappearances accidentally incommoded by one of the sailors, flew out againsthim with horrible curses, which the sailor someway resenting, the twoblacks dashed him to the deck and jumped upon him, despite the earnestcries of the oakum-pickers.

“Don Benito,” said Captain Delano quickly, “do you see what is goingon there? Look!”

But, seized by his cough, the Spaniard staggered, with both hands tohis face, on the point of falling. Captain Delano would have supported him,but the servant was more alert, who, with one hand sustaining his master,

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with the other applied the cordial. Don Benito restored, the black withdrewhis support, slipping aside a little, but dutifully remaining within call of awhisper. Such discretion was here evinced as quite wiped away, in the vis-itor’s eyes, any blemish of impropriety which might have attached to theattendant, from the indecorous conferences before mentioned; showing,too, that if the servant were to blame, it might be more the master’s faultthan his own, since when left to himself he could conduct thus well.

His glance thus called away from the spectacle of disorder to the morepleasing one before him, Captain Delano could not avoid again congratu-lating his host upon possessing such a servant, who, though perhaps a littletoo forward now and then, must upon the whole be invaluable to one in theinvalid’s situation.

“Tell me, Don Benito,” he added, with a smile — “I should like to haveyour man here myself — what will you take for him? Would fifty doubloonsbe any object?”

“Master wouldn’t part with Babo for a thousand doubloons,” mur-mured the black, overhearing the offer, and taking it in earnest, and, withthe strange vanity of a faithful slave appreciated by his master, scorningto hear so paltry a valuation put upon him by a stranger. But Don Benito,apparently hardly yet completely restored, and again interrupted by hiscough, made but some broken reply.

Soon his physical distress became so great, affecting his mind, too,apparently, that, as if to screen the sad spectacle, the servant gently con-ducted his master below.

Left to himself, the American, to while away the time till his boat shouldarrive, would have pleasantly accosted some one of the few Spanish sea-men he saw; but recalling something that Don Benito had said touchingtheir ill conduct, he refrained, as a ship-master indisposed to countenancecowardice or unfaithfulness in seamen.

While, with these thoughts, standing with eye directed forwardtowards that handful of sailors, suddenly he thought that one or two ofthem returned the glance and with a sort of meaning. He rubbed his eyes,and looked again; but again seemed to see the same thing. Under a newform, but more obscure than any previous one, the old suspicions recurred,but, in the absence of Don Benito, with less of panic than before. Despitethe bad account given of the sailors, Captain Delano resolved forthwith toaccost one of them. Descending the poop, he made his way through theblacks, his movement drawing a queer cry from the oakum-pickers,prompted by whom, the negroes, twitching each other aside, divided beforehim; but, as if curious to see what was the object of this deliberate visit to

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their Ghetto, closing in behind, in tolerable order, followed the white strangerup. His progress thus proclaimed as by mounted kings-at-arms, andescorted as by a Caffre17 guard of honor, Captain Delano, assuming a goodhumored, off-handed air, continued to advance; now and then saying ablithe word to the negroes, and his eye curiously surveying the white faces,here and there sparsely mixed in with the blacks, like stray white pawnsventurously involved in the ranks of the chess-men opposed.

While thinking which of them to select for his purpose, he chanced toobserve a sailor seated on the deck engaged in tarring the strap of a largeblock, with a circle of blacks squatted round him inquisitively eying theprocess.

The mean employment of the man was in contrast with somethingsuperior in his figure. His hand, black with continually thrusting it intothe tar-pot held for him by a negro, seemed not naturally allied to his face,a face which would have been a very fine one but for its haggardness.Whether this haggardness had aught to do with criminality, could not bedetermined; since, as intense heat and cold, though unlike, produce likesensations, so innocence and guilt, when, through casual association withmental pain, stamping any visible impress, use one seal — a hacked one.

Not again that this reflection occurred to Captain Delano at the time,charitable man as he was. Rather another idea. Because observing so singu-lar a haggardness combined with a dark eye, averted as in trouble and shame,and then again recalling Don Benito’s confessed ill opinion of his crew, insen-sibly he was operated upon by certain general notions, which, while discon-necting pain and abashment from virtue, invariably link them with vice.

If, indeed, there be any wickedness on board this ship, thought CaptainDelano, be sure that man there has fouled his hand in it, even as now hefouls it in the pitch. I don’t like to accost him. I will speak to this other, thisold Jack here on the windlass.

He advanced to an old Barcelona tar, in ragged red breeches and dirtynight-cap, cheeks trenched and bronzed, whiskers dense as thorn hedges.Seated between two sleepy-looking Africans, this mariner, like his youngershipmate, was employed upon some rigging — splicing a cable — the sleepy-looking blacks performing the inferior function of holding the outer partsof the ropes for him.

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17. Caffre: From Arab kaffir, meaning a non-Muslim or infidel. Here more likely used to referto a member of a group of Southern African Bantu-speaking peoples or, more generally, ablack African.

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Upon Captain Delano’s approach, the man at once hung his head belowits previous level; the one necessary for business. It appeared as if he desiredto be thought absorbed, with more than common fidelity, in his task. Beingaddressed, he glanced up, but with what seemed a furtive, diffident air, whichsat strangely enough on his weather-beaten visage, much as if a grizzly bear,instead of growling and biting, should simper and cast sheep’s eyes. He wasasked several questions concerning the voyage, questions purposely refer-ring to several particulars in Don Benito’s narrative, not previously corrobo-rated by those impulsive cries greeting the visitor on first coming on board.The questions were briefly answered, confirming all that remained to beconfirmed of the story. The negroes about the windlass joined in with theold sailor, but, as they became talkative, he by degrees became mute, and atlength quite glum, seemed morosely unwilling to answer more questions, andyet, all the while, this ursine air was somehow mixed with his sheepish one.

Despairing of getting into unembarrassed talk with such a centaur,Captain Delano, after glancing round for a more promising countenance,but seeing none, spoke pleasantly to the blacks to make way for him; andso, amid various grins and grimaces, returned to the poop, feeling a littlestrange at first, he could hardly tell why, but upon the whole with regainedconfidence in Benito Cereno.

How plainly, thought he, did that old whiskerando yonder betray aconsciousness of ill-desert. No doubt, when he saw me coming, he dreadedlest I, apprised by his Captain of the crew’s general misbehavior, came withsharp words for him, and so down with his head. And yet — and yet, now thatI think of it, that very old fellow, if I err not, was one of those who seemed soearnestly eying me here awhile since. Ah, these currents spin one’s headround almost as much as they do the ship. Ha, there now’s a pleasant sortof sunny sight; quite sociable, too.

His attention had been drawn to a slumbering negress, partly dis-closed through the lace-work of some rigging, lying, with youthful limbscarelessly disposed, under the lee of the bulwarks, like a doe in the shadeof a woodland rock. Sprawling at her lapped breasts was her wide-awakefawn, stark naked, its black little body half lifted from the deck, crosswisewith its dam’s; its hands, like two paws, clambering upon her; its mouthand nose ineffectually rooting to get at the mark; and meantime giving avexatious half-grunt, blending with the composed snore of the negress.

The uncommon vigor of the child at length roused the mother. Shestarted up, at distance facing Captain Delano. But as if not at all concernedat the attitude in which she had been caught, delightedly she caught thechild up, with maternal transports, covering it with kisses.

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There’s naked nature, now; pure tenderness and love, thought CaptainDelano, well pleased.

This incident prompted him to remark the other negresses more par-ticularly than before. He was gratified with their manners; like most unciv-ilized women, they seemed at once tender of heart and tough of constitution;equally ready to die for their infants or fight for them. Unsophisticated asleopardesses; loving as doves. Ah! thought Captain Delano, these perhapsare some of the very women whom Mungo Park18 saw in Africa, and gavesuch a noble account of.

These natural sights somehow insensibly deepened his confidence andease. At last he looked to see how his boat was getting on; but it was stillpretty remote. He turned to see if Don Benito had returned; but he had not.

To change the scene, as well as to please himself with a leisurely obser-vation of the coming boat, stepping over into the mizzen-chains he clam-bered his way into the starboard quarter-gallery; one of those abandonedVenetian-looking water-balconies previously mentioned; retreats cut offfrom the deck. As his foot pressed the half-damp, half-dry sea-mosses mat-ting the place, and a chance phantom cats-paw — an islet of breeze, unher-alded, unfollowed — as this ghostly cats-paw came fanning his cheek, as hisglance fell upon the row of small, round dead-lights, all closed like cop-pered eyes of the coffined, and the state-cabin door, once connecting withthe gallery, even as the dead-lights had once looked out upon it, but nowcalked fast like a sarcophagus lid, to a purple-black, tarred-over panel,threshold, and post; and he bethought him of the time, when that state-cabin and this state-balcony had heard the voices of the Spanish king’sofficers, and the forms of the Lima viceroy’s daughters had perhaps leanedwhere he stood — as these and other images flitted through his mind, asthe cats-paw through the calm, gradually he felt rising a dreamy inqui-etude, like that of one who alone on the prairie feels unrest from the reposeof the noon.

He leaned against the carved balustrade, again looking off toward hisboat; but found his eye falling upon the ribbon grass, trailing along theship’s water-line, straight as a border of green box; and parterres of sea-weed, broad ovals and crescents, floating nigh and far, with what seemedlong formal alleys between, crossing the terraces of swells, and sweeping

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18. Mungo Park: Melville used this name in the first version of Benito Cereno published inPutnam’s, referring to the Scottish explorer (1771–1806) and author of Travels in the InteriorDistricts of Africa (1799). In 1856, the editors of The Piazza Tales mistakenly substituted thename of John Ledyard (1751–1789). The original name was restored here.

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round as if leading to the grottoes below. And overhanging all was thebalustrade by his arm, which, partly stained with pitch and partly embossedwith moss, seemed the charred ruin of some summer-house in a grand gar-den long running to waste.

Trying to break one charm, he was but becharmed anew. Though uponthe wide sea, he seemed in some far inland country; prisoner in somedeserted château, left to stare at empty grounds, and peer out at vague roads,where never wagon or wayfarer passed.

But these enchantments were a little disenchanted as his eye fell onthe corroded main-chains. Of an ancient style, massy and rusty in link,shackle and bolt, they seemed even more fit for the ship’s present businessthan the one for which probably she had been built.

Presently he thought something moved nigh the chains. He rubbed hiseyes, and looked hard. Groves of rigging were about the chains; and there,peering from behind a great stay, like an Indian from behind a hemlock, aSpanish sailor, a marlingspike in his hand, was seen, who made what seemedan imperfect gesture towards the balcony, but immediately, as if alarmedby some advancing step along the deck within, vanished into the recessesof the hempen forest, like a poacher.

What meant this? Something the man had sought to communicate,unbeknown to any one, even to his captain. Did the secret involve aught unfa-vorable to his captain? Were those previous misgivings of Captain Delano’sabout to be verified? Or, in his haunted mood at the moment, had somerandom, unintentional motion of the man, while busy with the stay, as ifrepairing it, been mistaken for a significant beckoning?

Not unbewildered, again he gazed off for his boat. But it was temporar-ily hidden by a rocky spur of the isle. As with some eagerness he bent for-ward, watching for the first shooting view of its beak, the balustrade gaveway before him like charcoal. Had he not clutched an outreaching rope hewould have fallen into the sea. The crash, though feeble, and the fall, thoughhollow, of the rotten fragments, must have been overheard. He glanced up.With sober curiosity peering down upon him was one of the old oakum-pick-ers, slipped from his perch to an outside boom; while below the old negro,and, invisible to him, reconnoitering from a porthole like a fox from themouth of its den, crouched the Spanish sailor again. From something sud-denly suggested by the man’s air, the mad idea now darted into CaptainDelano’s mind, that Don Benito’s plea of indisposition, in withdrawing below,was but a pretense: that he was engaged there maturing some plot, of whichthe sailor, by some means gaining an inkling, had a mind to warn thestranger against; incited, it may be, by gratitude for a kind word on first

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boarding the ship. Was it from foreseeing some possible interference likethis, that Don Benito had, beforehand, given such a bad character of hissailors, while praising the negroes; though, indeed, the former seemed asdocile as the latter the contrary? The whites, too, by nature, were theshrewder race. A man with some evil design, would he not be likely to speakwell of that stupidity which was blind to his depravity, and malign that intel-ligence from which it might not be hidden? Not unlikely, perhaps. But if thewhites had dark secrets concerning Don Benito, could then Don Benito beany way in complicity with the blacks? But they were too stupid. Besides, whoever heard of a white so far a renegade as to apostatize from his very speciesalmost, by leaguing in against it with negroes? These difficulties recalled for-mer ones. Lost in their mazes, Captain Delano, who had now regained thedeck, was uneasily advancing along it, when he observed a new face; an agedsailor seated cross-legged near the main hatchway. His skin was shrunk upwith wrinkles like a pelican’s empty pouch; his hair frosted; his countenancegrave and composed. His hands were full of ropes, which he was working intoa large knot. Some blacks were about him obligingly dipping the strands forhim, here and there, as the exigencies of the operation demanded.

Captain Delano crossed over to him, and stood in silence surveyingthe knot; his mind, by a not uncongenial transition, passing from its ownentanglements to those of the hemp. For intricacy such a knot he had neverseen in an American ship, or indeed any other. The old man looked like anEgyptian priest, making gordian knots19 for the temple of Ammon. Theknot seemed a combination of double-bowline-knot, treble-crown-knot, back-handed-well-knot, knot-in-and-out-knot, and jamming-knot.

At last, puzzled to comprehend the meaning of such a knot, CaptainDelano addressed the knotter: —

“What are you knotting there, my man?”“The knot,” was the brief reply, without looking up.“So it seems; but what is it for?”“For some one else to undo,” muttered back the old man, plying his

fingers harder than ever, the knot being now nearly completed.While Captain Delano stood watching him, suddenly the old man

threw the knot towards him, saying in broken English, — the first heard inthe ship, — something to this effect — “Undo it, cut it, quick.” It was saidlowly, but with such condensation of rapidity, that the long, slow words in

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19. gordian knots: Alexander the Great cut the Gordian knot in 333 B.C.E., then in 332 visitedthe temple of Ammon in Egypt.

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Spanish, which had preceded and followed, almost operated as covers tothe brief English between.

For a moment, knot in hand, and knot in head, Captain Delano stoodmute; while, without further heeding him, the old man was now intentupon other ropes. Presently there was a slight stir behind Captain Delano.Turning, he saw the chained negro, Atufal, standing quietly there. The nextmoment the old sailor rose, muttering, and, followed by his subordinatenegroes, removed to the forward part of the ship, where in the crowd hedisappeared.

An elderly negro, in a clout like an infant’s, and with a pepper and salthead, and a kind of attorney air, now approached Captain Delano. In toler-able Spanish, and with a good-natured, knowing wink, he informed himthat the old knotter was simple-witted, but harmless; often playing his oldtricks. The negro concluded by begging the knot, for of course the strangerwould not care to be troubled with it. Unconsciously, it was handed to him.With a sort of congé, the negro received it, and turning his back, ferretedinto it like a detective Custom House officer after smuggled laces. Soon, withsome African word, equivalent to pshaw, he tossed the knot overboard.

All this is very queer now, thought Captain Delano, with a qualmish sortof emotion; but as one feeling incipient sea-sickness, he strove, by ignor-ing the symptoms, to get rid of the malady. Once more he looked off for hisboat. To his delight, it was now again in view, leaving the rocky spur astern.

The sensation here experienced, after at first relieving his uneasi-ness, with unforeseen efficacy, soon began to remove it. The less distantsight of that well-known boat — showing it, not as before, half blended withthe haze, but with outline defined, so that its individuality, like a man’s,was manifest; that boat, Rover by name, which, though now in strange seas,had often pressed the beach of Captain Delano’s home, and, brought to itsthreshold for repairs, had familiarly lain there, as a Newfoundland dog;the sight of that household boat evoked a thousand trustful associations,which, contrasted with previous suspicions, filled him not only with light-some confidence, but somehow with half humorous self-reproaches at hisformer lack of it.

“What, I, Amasa Delano — Jack of the Beach, as they called me when alad — I, Amasa; the same that, duck-satchel in hand, used to paddle alongthe waterside to the school-house made from the old hulk; — I, little Jack ofthe Beach, that used to go berrying with cousin Nat and the rest; I to bemurdered here at the ends of the earth, on board a haunted pirate-ship by ahorrible Spaniard? — Too nonsensical to think of! Who would murder AmasaDelano? His conscience is clean. There is some one above. Fie, fie, Jack of

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the Beach! you are a child indeed; a child of the second childhood, old boy;you are beginning to dote and drule, I’m afraid.”

Light of heart and foot, he stepped aft, and there was met by DonBenito’s servant, who, with a pleasing expression, responsive to his ownpresent feelings, informed him that his master had recovered from the effectsof his coughing fit, and had just ordered him to go present his complimentsto his good guest, Don Amasa, and say that he (Don Benito) would soonhave the happiness to rejoin him.

There now, do you mark that? again thought Captain Delano, walkingthe poop. What a donkey I was. This kind gentleman who here sends mehis kind compliments, he, but ten minutes ago, dark-lantern in hand, wasdodging round some old grind-stone in the hold, sharpening a hatchet forme, I thought. Well, well; these long calms have a morbid effect on the mind,I’ve often heard, though I never believed it before. Ha! glancing towardsthe boat; there’s Rover; good dog; a white bone in her mouth. A pretty bigbone though, seems to me. — What? Yes, she has fallen afoul of the bub-bling tide-rip there. It sets her the other way, too, for the time. Patience.

It was now about noon, though, from the grayness of everything, itseemed to be getting towards dusk.

The calm was confirmed. In the far distance, away from the influenceof land, the leaden ocean seemed laid out and leaded up, its course fin-ished, soul gone, defunct. But the current from landward, where the shipwas, increased; silently sweeping her further and further towards the trancedwaters beyond.

Still, from his knowledge of those latitudes, cherishing hopes of abreeze, and a fair and fresh one, at any moment, Captain Delano, despitepresent prospects, buoyantly counted upon bringing the San Dominick safelyto anchor ere night. The distance swept over was nothing; since, with agood wind, ten minutes’ sailing would retrace more than sixty minutes’drifting. Meantime, one moment turning to mark “Rover” fighting thetide-rip, and the next to see Don Benito approaching, he continued walk-ing the poop.

Gradually he felt a vexation arising from the delay of his boat; thissoon merged into uneasiness; and at last, his eye falling continually, asfrom a stage-box into the pit, upon the strange crowd before and below him,and by and by recognising there the face — now composed to indifference —of the Spanish sailor who had seemed to beckon from the main chains,something of his old trepidations returned.

Ah, thought he — gravely enough — this is like the ague: because it wentoff, it follows not that it won’t come back.

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Though ashamed of the relapse, he could not altogether subdue it; andso, exerting his good nature to the utmost, insensibly he came to a com-promise.

Yes, this is a strange craft; a strange history, too, and strange folks on board. But — nothing more.

By way of keeping his mind out of mischief till the boat should arrive,he tried to occupy it with turning over and over, in a purely speculativesort of way, some lesser peculiarities of the captain and crew. Among oth-ers, four curious points recurred.

First, the affair of the Spanish lad assailed with a knife by the slaveboy; an act winked at by Don Benito. Second, the tyranny in Don Benito’streatment of Atufal, the black; as if a child should lead a bull of the Nile bythe ring in his nose. Third, the trampling of the sailor by the two negroes;a piece of insolence passed over without so much as a reprimand. Fourth,the cringing submission to their master of all the ship’s underlings, mostlyblacks; as if by the least inadvertence they feared to draw down his despoticdispleasure.

Coupling these points, they seemed somewhat contradictory. But whatthen, thought Captain Delano, glancing towards his now nearing boat, —what then? Why, Don Benito is a very capricious commander. But he is notthe first of the sort I have seen; though it’s true he rather exceeds any other.But as a nation — continued he in his reveries — these Spaniards are all anodd set; the very word Spaniard has a curious, conspirator, Guy-Fawkish20

twang to it. And yet, I dare say, Spaniards in the main are as good folks asany in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Ah good! At last “Rover” has come.

As, with its welcome freight, the boat touched the side, the oakum-pickers, with venerable gestures, sought to restrain the blacks, who, at thesight of three gurried water-casks in its bottom, and a pile of wilted pump-kins in its bow, hung over the bulwarks in disorderly raptures.

Don Benito with his servant now appeared; his coming, perhaps, has-tened by hearing the noise. Of him Captain Delano sought permission toserve out the water, so that all might share alike, and none injure themselvesby unfair excess. But sensible, and, on Don Benito’s account, kind as this offerwas, it was received with what seemed impatience; as if aware that he lackedenergy as a commander, Don Benito, with the true jealousy of weakness,resented as an affront any interference. So, at least, Captain Delano inferred.

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20. Guy-Fawkish: Guy Fawkes (1570–1606), a Catholic, helped engineer the Gunpowder Plot(1605), a conspiracy to blow up Parliament and ignite a Catholic rebellion in England.

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In another moment the casks were being hoisted in, when some ofthe eager negroes accidentally jostled Captain Delano, where he stood bythe gangway; so that, unmindful of Don Benito, yielding to the impulse of themoment, with good-natured authority he bade the blacks stand back; toenforce his words making use of a half-mirthful, half-menacing gesture.Instantly the blacks paused, just where they were, each negro and negresssuspended in his or her posture, exactly as the word had found them — fora few seconds continuing so — while, as between the responsive posts of atelegraph, an unknown syllable ran from man to man among the perchedoakum-pickers. While the visitor’s attention was fixed by this scene, sud-denly the hatchet-polishers half rose, and a rapid cry came from Don Benito.

Thinking that at the signal of the Spaniard he was about to be mas-sacred, Captain Delano would have sprung for his boat, but paused, as theoakum-pickers, dropping down into the crowd with earnest exclamations,forced every white and every negro back, at the same moment, with gesturesfriendly and familiar, almost jocose, bidding him, in substance, not be afool. Simultaneously the hatchet-polishers resumed their seats, quietly asso many tailors, and at once, as if nothing had happened, the work of hoist-ing in the casks was resumed, whites and blacks singing at the tackle.

Captain Delano glanced towards Don Benito. As he saw his meagerform in the act of recovering itself from reclining in the servant’s arms,into which the agitated invalid had fallen, he could not but marvel at thepanic by which himself had been surprised on the darting supposition thatsuch a commander, who upon a legitimate occasion, so trivial, too, as it nowappeared, could lose all self-command, was, with energetic iniquity, goingto bring about his murder.

The casks being on deck, Captain Delano was handed a number ofjars and cups by one of the steward’s aids, who, in the name of his captain,entreated him to do as he had proposed: dole out the water. He complied,with republican impartiality as to this republican element, which alwaysseeks one level, serving the oldest white no better than the youngest black;excepting, indeed, poor Don Benito, whose condition, if not rank, demandedan extra allowance. To him, in the first place, Captain Delano presented a fairpitcher of the fluid; but, thirsting as he was for it, the Spaniard quaffed nota drop until after several grave bows and salutes. A reciprocation of cour-tesies which the sight-loving Africans hailed with clapping of hands.

Two of the less wilted pumpkins being reserved for the cabin table, theresidue were minced up on the spot for the general regalement. But thesoft bread, sugar, and bottled cider, Captain Delano would have given the whites alone, and in chief Don Benito; but the latter objected; which

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disinterestedness, on his part, not a little pleased the American; and somouthfuls all around were given alike to whites and blacks; excepting onebottle of cider, which Babo insisted upon setting aside for his master.

Here it may be observed that as, on the first visit of the boat, theAmerican had not permitted his men to board the ship, neither did he now;being unwilling to add to the confusion of the decks.

Not uninfluenced by the peculiar good humor at present prevailing,and for the time oblivious of any but benevolent thoughts, Captain Delano,who from recent indications counted upon a breeze within an hour or twoat furthest, dispatched the boat back to the sealer with orders for all thehands that could be spared immediately to set about rafting casks to thewatering-place and filling them. Likewise he bade word be carried to hischief officer, that if against present expectation the ship was not broughtto anchor by sunset, he need be under no concern, for as there was to be afull moon that night, he (Captain Delano) would remain on board ready toplay the pilot, come the wind soon or late.

As the two Captains stood together, observing the departing boat —the servant as it happened having just spied a spot on his master’s velvetsleeve, and silently engaged rubbing it out — the American expressed hisregrets that the San Dominick had no boats; none, at least, but the unsea-worthy old hulk of the long-boat, which, warped as a camel’s skeleton inthe desert, and almost as bleached, lay pot-wise inverted amidships, oneside a little tipped, furnishing a subterraneous sort of den for family groupsof the blacks, mostly women and small children; who, squatting on oldmats below, or perched above in the dark dome, on the elevated seats, weredescried, some distance within, like a social circle of bats, sheltering insome friendly cave; at intervals, ebon flights of naked boys and girls, threeor four years old, darting in and out of the den’s mouth.

“Had you three or four boats now, Don Benito,” said Captain Delano,“I think that, by tugging at the oars, your negroes here might help alongmatters some. — Did you sail from port without boats, Don Benito?”

“They were stove in the gales, Señor.”“That was bad. Many men, too, you lost then. Boats and men. — Those

must have been hard gales, Don Benito.”“Past all speech,” cringed the Spaniard.“Tell me, Don Benito,” continued his companion with increased inter-

est, “tell me, were these gales immediately off the pitch of Cape Horn?”“Cape Horn? — who spoke of Cape Horn?”“Yourself did, when giving me an account of your voyage,” answered

Captain Delano with almost equal astonishment at this eating of his own

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words, even as he ever seemed eating his own heart, on the part of theSpaniard. “You yourself, Don Benito, spoke of Cape Horn,” he emphaticallyrepeated.

The Spaniard turned, in a sort of stooping posture, pausing an instant,as one about to make a plunging exchange of elements, as from air towater.

At this moment a messenger-boy, a white, hurried by, in the regularperformance of his function carrying the last expired half hour forward tothe forecastle, from the cabin time-piece, to have it struck at the ship’slarge bell.

“Master,” said the servant, discontinuing his work on the coat sleeve,and addressing the rapt Spaniard with a sort of timid apprehensiveness,as one charged with a duty, the discharge of which, it was foreseen, wouldprove irksome to the very person who had imposed it, and for whose bene-fit it was intended, “master told me never mind where he was, or how engaged,always to remind him, to a minute, when shaving-time comes. Miguel hasgone to strike the half-hour afternoon. It is now, master. Will master gointo the cuddy?”

“Ah — yes,” answered the Spaniard, starting, somewhat as from dreamsinto realities; then turning upon Captain Delano, he said that ere long hewould resume the conversation.

“Then if master means to talk more to Don Amasa,” said the servant,“why not let Don Amasa sit by master in the cuddy, and master can talk,and Don Amasa can listen, while Babo here lathers and strops.”

“Yes,” said Captain Delano, not unpleased with this sociable plan, “yes,Don Benito, unless you had rather not, I will go with you.”

“Be it so, Señor.”As the three passed aft, the American could not but think it another

strange instance of his host’s capriciousness, this being shaved with suchuncommon punctuality in the middle of the day. But he deemed it morethan likely that the servant’s anxious fidelity had something to do withthe matter; inasmuch as the timely interruption served to rally his masterfrom the mood which had evidently been coming upon him.

The place called the cuddy was a light deck-cabin formed by the poop,a sort of attic to the large cabin below. Part of it had formerly been the quar-ters of the officers; but since their death all the partitionings had beenthrown down, and the whole interior converted into one spacious and airymarine hall; for absence of fine furniture and picturesque disarray, of oddappurtenances, somewhat answering to the wide, cluttered hall of someeccentric bachelor-squire in the country, who hangs his shooting-jacket

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and tobacco-pouch on deer antlers, and keeps his fishing-rod, tongs, andwalking-stick in the same corner.

The similitude was heightened, if not originally suggested, by glimpsesof the surrounding sea; since, in one aspect, the country and the ocean seemcousins-german.

The floor of the cuddy was matted. Overhead, four or five old musketswere stuck into horizontal holes along the beams. On one side was a claw-footed old table lashed to the deck; a thumbed missal on it, and over it asmall, meager crucifix attached to the bulk-head. Under the table lay adented cutlass or two, with a hacked harpoon, among some melancholy old rigging, like a heap of poor friar’s girdles. There were also two long,sharp-ribbed settees of malacca cane, black with age, and uncomfortableto look at as inquisitors’ racks, with a large, misshapen arm-chair, which,furnished with a rude barber’s crutch at the back, working with a screw,seemed some grotesque, middle-age21 engine of torment. A flag locker was in one corner, open, exposing various colored bunting, some rolled up,others half unrolled, still others tumbled. Opposite was a cumbrous washstand, of black mahogany, all of one block, with a pedestal, like a font,and over it a railed shelf, containing combs, brushes, and other imple-ments of the toilet. A torn hammock of stained grass swung near; thesheets tossed, and the pillow wrinkled up like a brow, as if whoever slepthere slept but illy, with alternate visitations of sad thoughts and baddreams.

The further extremity of the cuddy, overhanging the ship’s stern, waspierced with three openings, windows or port holes, according as men orcannon might peer, socially or unsocially, out of them. At present neithermen nor cannon were seen, though huge ring-bolts and other rusty ironfixtures of the wood-work hinted of twenty-four-pounders.

Glancing towards the hammock as he entered, Captain Delano said,“You sleep here, Don Benito?”

“Yes, Señor, since we got into mild weather.”“This seems a sort of dormitory, sitting-room, sail-loft, chapel, armory,

and private closet all together, Don Benito,” added Captain Delano, look-ing round.

“Yes, Señor; events have not been favorable to much order in myarrangements.”

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21. middle-age: Medieval. The imagery in this paragraph suggests Inquisitorial violenceagainst heretics, Moors (black Africans), and Jews in medieval and Renaissance Spain.

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Here the servant, napkin on arm, made a motion as if waiting hismaster’s good pleasure. Don Benito signified his readiness, when, seatinghim in the malacca arm-chair, and for the guest’s convenience drawing oppo-site it one of the settees, the servant commenced operations by throwingback his master’s collar and loosening his cravat.

There is something in the negro which, in a peculiar way, fits him foravocations about one’s person. Most negroes are natural valets and hair-dressers; taking to the comb and brush congenially as to the castinets, andflourishing them apparently with almost equal satisfaction. There is, too,a smooth tact about them in this employment, with a marvelous, noise-less, gliding briskness, not ungraceful in its way, singularly pleasing tobehold, and still more so to be the manipulated subject of. And above all isthe great gift of good humor. Not the mere grin or laugh is here meant.Those were unsuitable. But a certain easy cheerfulness, harmonious inevery glance and gesture; as though God had set the whole negro to somepleasant tune.

When to all this is added the docility arising from the unaspiringcontentment of a limited mind, and that susceptibility of blind attachmentsometimes inhering in indisputable inferiors, one readily perceives whythose hypochondriacs, Johnson and Byron — it may be something like thehypochondriac, Benito Cereno — took to their hearts, almost to the exclu-sion of the entire white race, their serving men, the negroes, Barber andFletcher.22 But if there be that in the negro which exempts him from theinflicted sourness of the morbid or cynical mind, how, in his most prepos-sessing aspects, must he appear to a benevolent one? When at ease withrespect to exterior things, Captain Delano’s nature was not only benign,but familiarly and humorously so. At home, he had often taken rare satis-faction in sitting in his door, watching some free man of color at his workor play. If on a voyage he chanced to have a black sailor, invariably he wason chatty, and half-gamesome terms with him. In fact, like most men of agood, blithe heart, Captain Delano took to negroes, not philanthropically,but genially, just as other men to Newfoundland dogs.

Hitherto the circumstances in which he found the San Dominick hadrepressed the tendency. But in the cuddy, relieved from his former uneasi-ness, and, for various reasons, more sociably inclined than at any previousperiod of the day, and seeing the colored servant, napkin on arm, so debonair

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22. Barber and Fletcher: Francis Barber was the African servant of the English authorSamuel Johnson (1709–1784). Melville may be confusing William Fletcher, a white valet ofLord Byron (1788–1824), with another black servant.

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about his master, in a business so familiar as that of shaving, too, all hisold weakness for negroes returned.

Among other things, he was amused with an odd instance of theAfrican love of bright colors and fine shows, in the black’s informally tak-ing from the flag-locker a great piece of bunting of all hues, and lavishlytucking it under his master’s chin for an apron.

The mode of shaving among the Spaniards is a little different fromwhat it is with other nations. They have a basin, specifically called a barber’sbasin, which on one side is scooped out, so as accurately to receive the chin,against which it is closely held in lathering; which is done, not with a brush,but with soap dipped in the water of the basin and rubbed on the face.

In the present instance salt-water was used for lack of better; and theparts lathered were only the upper lip, and low down under the throat, allthe rest being cultivated beard.

The preliminaries being somewhat novel to Captain Delano, he satcuriously eying them, so that no conversation took place, nor for the pres-ent did Don Benito appear disposed to renew any.

Setting down his basin, the negro searched among the razors, as for thesharpest, and having found it, gave it an additional edge by expertly strap-ping it on the firm, smooth, oily skin of his open palm; he then made a gestureas if to begin, but midway stood suspended for an instant, one hand elevatingthe razor, the other professionally dabbling among the bubbling suds on theSpaniard’s lank neck. Not unaffected by the close sight of the gleaming steel,Don Benito nervously shuddered; his usual ghastliness was heightened bythe lather, which lather, again, was intensified in its hue by the contrastingsootiness of the negro’s body. Altogether the scene was somewhat peculiar, atleast to Captain Delano, nor, as he saw the two thus postured, could he resistthe vagary, that in the black he saw a headsman, and in the white, a man at theblock. But this was one of those antic conceits, appearing and vanishing in abreath, from which, perhaps, the best regulated mind is not always free.

Meantime the agitation of the Spaniard had a little loosened thebunting from around him, so that one broad fold swept curtain-like overthe chair-arm to the floor, revealing, amid a profusion of armorial bars andground-colors — black, blue, and yellow — a closed castle in a blood-redfield diagonal with a lion rampant in a white.

“The castle and the lion,” exclaimed Captain Delano — “why, Don Benito,this is the flag of Spain you use here. It’s well it’s only I, and not the King,that sees this,” he added with a smile, “but” — turning towards the black, —“it’s all one, I suppose, so the colors be gay”; which playful remark did notfail somewhat to tickle the negro.

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“Now, master,” he said, readjusting the flag, and pressing the headgently further back into the crotch of the chair; “now master,” and the steelglanced nigh the throat.

Again Don Benito faintly shuddered.“You must not shake so, master. — See, Don Amasa, master always

shakes when I shave him. And yet master knows I never yet have drawnblood, though it’s true, if master will shake so, I may some of these times.Now master,” he continued. “And now, Don Amasa, please go on with yourtalk about the gale, and all that, master can hear, and between times mas-ter can answer.”

“Ah yes, these gales,” said Captain Delano; “but the more I think of yourvoyage, Don Benito, the more I wonder, not at the gales, terrible as they musthave been, but at the disastrous interval following them. For here, by youraccount, have you been these two months and more getting from Cape Hornto St. Maria, a distance which I myself, with a good wind, have sailed in a fewdays. True, you had calms, and long ones, but to be becalmed for two months,that is, at least, unusual. Why, Don Benito, had almost any other gentlemantold me such a story, I should have been half disposed to a little incredulity.”

Here an involuntary expression came over the Spaniard, similar to thatjust before on the deck, and whether it was the start he gave, or a sudden gawkyroll of the hull in the calm, or a momentary unsteadiness of the servant’s hand;however it was, just then the razor drew blood, spots of which stained thecreamy lather under the throat; immediately the black barber drew back hissteel, and remaining in his professional attitude, back to Captain Delano, andface to Don Benito, held up the trickling razor, saying, with a sort of halfhumorous sorrow, “See, master, — you shook so — here’s Babo’s first blood.”

No sword drawn before James the First of England,23 no assassina-tion in that timid King’s presence, could have produced a more terrifiedaspect than was now presented by Don Benito.

Poor fellow, thought Captain Delano, so nervous he can’t even bearthe sight of barber’s blood; and this unstrung, sick man, is it credible thatI should have imagined he meant to spill all my blood, who can’t endure thesight of one little drop of his own? Surely, Amasa Delano, you have beenbeside yourself this day. Tell it not when you get home, sappy Amasa. Well,well, he looks like a murderer, doesn’t he? More like as if himself were to bedone for. Well, well, this day’s experience shall be a good lesson.

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23. James the First of England: The king against whom Guy Fawkes and his party plannedthe Gunpowder Plot.

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Meantime, while these things were running through the honest sea-man’s mind, the servant had taken the napkin from his arm, and to DonBenito had said — “But answer Don Amasa, please, master, while I wipethis ugly stuff off the razor, and strop it again.”

As he said the words, his face was turned half round, so as to be alikevisible to the Spaniard and the American, and seemed by its expression tohint, that he was desirous, by getting his master to go on with the conversa-tion, considerately to withdraw his attention from the recent annoying acci-dent. As if glad to snatch the offered relief, Don Benito resumed, rehearsingto Captain Delano, that not only were the calms of unusual duration, but theship had fallen in with obstinate currents; and other things he added, someof which were but repetitions of former statements, to explain how it cameto pass that the passage from Cape Horn to St. Maria had been so exceed-ingly long, now and then mingling with his words, incidental praises, lessqualified than before, to the blacks, for their general good conduct.

These particulars were not given consecutively, the servant, at con-venient times, using his razor, and so, between the intervals of shaving,the story and panegyric went on with more than usual huskiness.

To Captain Delano’s imagination, now again not wholly at rest, therewas something so hollow in the Spaniard’s manner, with apparently somereciprocal hollowness in the servant’s dusky comment of silence, that theidea flashed across him, that possibly master and man, for some unknownpurpose, were acting out, both in word and deed, nay, to the very tremor ofDon Benito’s limbs, some juggling play before him. Neither did the suspi-cion of collusion lack apparent support, from the fact of those whisperedconferences before mentioned. But then, what could be the object of enact-ing this play of the barber before him? At last, regarding the notion as a whimsy, insensibly suggested, perhaps, by the theatrical aspect of DonBenito in his harlequin ensign, Captain Delano speedily banished it.

The shaving over, the servant bestirred himself with a small bottle ofscented waters, pouring a few drops on the head, and then diligently rub-bing; the vehemence of the exercise causing the muscles of his face to twitchrather strangely.

His next operation was with comb, scissors and brush; going roundand round, smoothing a curl here, clipping an unruly whisker-hair there,giving a graceful sweep to the temple-lock, with other impromptu touchesevincing the hand of a master; while, like any resigned gentleman in barber’shands, Don Benito bore all, much less uneasily, at least, than he had donethe razoring; indeed, he sat so pale and rigid now, that the negro seemed aNubian sculptor finishing off a white statue-head.

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All being over at last, the standard of Spain removed, tumbled up, andtossed back into the flag-locker, the negro’s warm breath blowing awayany stray hair which might have lodged down his master’s neck; collar andcravat readjusted; a speck of lint whisked off the velvet lapel; all this beingdone; backing off a little space, and pausing with an expression of sub-dued self-complacency, the servant for a moment surveyed his master, as,in toilet at least, the creature of his own tasteful hands.

Captain Delano playfully complimented him upon his achievement;at the same time congratulating Don Benito.

But neither sweet waters, nor shampooing, nor fidelity, nor sociality,delighted the Spaniard. Seeing him relapsing into forbidding gloom, andstill remaining seated, Captain Delano, thinking that his presence was unde-sired just then, withdrew, on pretense of seeing whether, as he had prophe-cied, any signs of a breeze were visible.

Walking forward to the mainmast, he stood awhile thinking over thescene, and not without some undefined misgivings, when he heard a noisenear the cuddy, and turning, saw the negro, his hand to his cheek. Advancing,Captain Delano perceived that the cheek was bleeding. He was about to askthe cause, when the negro’s wailing soliloquy enlightened him.

“Ah, when will master get better from his sickness; only the sour heartthat sour sickness breeds made him serve Babo so; cutting Babo with therazor, because, only by accident, Babo had given master one little scratch;and for the first time in so many a day, too. Ah, ah, ah,” holding his hand tohis face.

Is it possible, thought Captain Delano; was it to wreak in private hisSpanish spite against this poor friend of his, that Don Benito, by his sullenmanner, impelled me to withdraw? Ah, this slavery breeds ugly passions inman. — Poor fellow!

He was about to speak in sympathy to the negro, but with a timid reluc-tance he now reëntered the cuddy.

Presently master and man came forth; Don Benito leaning on his ser-vant as if nothing had happened.

But a sort of love-quarrel, after all, thought Captain Delano.He accosted Don Benito, and they slowly walked together. They had

gone but a few paces, when the steward — a tall, rajah-looking mulatto, ori-entally set off with a pagoda turban formed by three or four Madras hand-kerchiefs wound about his head, tier on tier — approaching with a salaam,announced lunch in the cabin.

On their way thither, the two Captains were preceded by the mulatto,who, turning round as he advanced, with continual smiles and bows, ushered

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them on, a display of elegance which quite completed the insignificance ofthe small bare-headed Babo, who, as if not unconscious of inferiority, eyedaskance the graceful steward. But in part, Captain Delano imputed hisjealous watchfulness to that peculiar feeling which the full-blooded Africanentertains for the adulterated one. As for the steward, his manner, if not bespeaking much dignity of self-respect, yet evidenced his extremedesire to please: which is doubly meritorious, as at once Christian andChesterfieldian.24

Captain Delano observed with interest that while the complexion ofthe mulatto was hybrid, his physiognomy was European; classically so.

“Don Benito,” whispered he, “I am glad to see this usher-of-the-golden-rod of yours; the sight refutes an ugly remark once made to me by aBarbadoes planter; that when a mulatto has a regular European face, lookout for him; he is a devil. But see, your steward here has features more reg-ular than King George’s of England; and yet there he nods, and bows, andsmiles; a king, indeed — the king of kind hearts and polite fellows. What apleasant voice he has, too!”

“He has, Señor.”“But, tell me, has he not, so far as you have known him, always proved

a good, worthy fellow?” said Captain Delano, pausing, while with a finalgenuflexion the steward disappeared into the cabin; “come, for the reasonjust mentioned, I am curious to know.”

“Francesco is a good man,” a sort of sluggishly responded Don Benito,like a phlegmatic appreciator, who would neither find fault nor flatter.

“Ah, I thought so. For it were strange indeed, and not very creditable tous white-skins, if a little of our blood mixed with the African’s should, far fromimproving the latter’s quality, have the sad effect of pouring vitriolic acidinto black broth; improving the hue, perhaps, but not the wholesomeness.”

“Doubtless, doubtless, Señor, but” — glancing at Babo — “not to speakof negroes, your planter’s remark I have heard applied to the Spanish andIndian intermixtures in our provinces. But I know nothing about the mat-ter,” he listlessly added.

And here they entered the cabin.The lunch was a frugal one. Some of Captain Delano’s fresh fish and

pumpkins, biscuit and salt beef, the reserved bottle of cider, and the SanDominick’s last bottle of Canary.

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24. Chesterfieldian: Referring to Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773), whose let-ters to his son provided an expedient model of social behavior and a polished alternative toChristian morality.

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As they entered, Francesco, with two or three colored aids, was hover-ing over the table giving the last adjustments. Upon perceiving their mas-ter they withdrew, Francesco making a smiling congé, and the Spaniard,without condescending to notice it, fastidiously remarking to his compan-ion that he relished not superfluous attendance.

Without companions, host and guest sat down, like a childless mar-ried couple, at opposite ends of the table, Don Benito waving Captain Delanoto his place, and, weak as he was, insisting upon that gentleman being seatedbefore himself.

The negro placed a rug under Don Benito’s feet, and a cushion behindhis back, and then stood behind, not his master’s chair, but CaptainDelano’s. At first, this a little surprised the latter. But it was soon evidentthat, in taking his position, the black was still true to his master; since byfacing him he could the more readily anticipate his slightest want.

“This is an uncommonly intelligent fellow of yours, Don Benito,” whis-pered Captain Delano across the table.

“You say true, Señor.”During the repast, the guest again reverted to parts of Don Benito’s

story, begging further particulars here and there. He inquired how it wasthat the scurvy and fever should have committed such wholesale havoc uponthe whites, while destroying less than half of the blacks. As if this questionreproduced the whole scene of plague before the Spaniard’s eyes, miser-ably reminding him of his solitude in a cabin where before he had had somany friends and officers round him, his hand shook, his face becamehueless, broken words escaped; but directly the sane memory of the pastseemed replaced by insane terrors of the present. With starting eyes hestared before him at vacancy. For nothing was to be seen but the hand ofhis servant pushing the Canary over towards him. At length a few sipsserved partially to restore him. He made random reference to the differentconstitution of races, enabling one to offer more resistance to certain mal-adies than another. The thought was new to his companion.

Presently Captain Delano, intending to say something to his hostconcerning the pecuniary part of the business he had undertaken for him,especially — since he was strictly accountable to his owners — with referenceto the new suit of sails, and other things of that sort; and naturally preferringto conduct such affairs in private, was desirous that the servant shouldwithdraw; imagining that Don Benito for a few minutes could dispense withhis attendance. He, however, waited awhile; thinking that, as the conver-sation proceeded, Don Benito, without being prompted, would perceive thepropriety of the step.

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But it was otherwise. At last catching his host’s eye, Captain Delano,with a slight backward gesture of his thumb, whispered, “Don Benito, par-don me, but there is an interference with the full expression of what I haveto say to you.”

Upon this the Spaniard changed countenance; which was imputed tohis resenting the hint, as in some way a reflection upon his servant. After amoment’s pause, he assured his guest that the black’s remaining with themcould be of no disservice; because since losing his officers he had made Babo(whose original office, it now appeared, had been captain of the slaves) notonly his constant attendant and companion, but in all things his confidant.

After this, nothing more could be said; though, indeed, Captain Delanocould hardly avoid some little tinge of irritation upon being left ungrati-fied in so inconsiderable a wish, by one, too, for whom he intended suchsolid services. But it is only his querulousness, thought he; and so fillinghis glass he proceeded to business.

The price of the sails and other matters was fixed upon. But whilethis was being done, the American observed that, though his original offerof assistance had been hailed with hectic animation, yet now when it wasreduced to a business transaction, indifference and apathy were betrayed.Don Benito, in fact, appeared to submit to hearing the details more out ofregard to common propriety, than from any impression that weighty bene-fit to himself and his voyage was involved.

Soon, this manner became still more reserved. The effort was vain toseek to draw him into social talk. Gnawed by his splenetic mood, he sattwitching his beard, while to little purpose the hand of his servant, muteas that on the wall, slowly pushed over the Canary.

Lunch being over, they sat down on the cushioned transom; the servantplacing a pillow behind his master. The long continuance of the calm hadnow affected the atmosphere. Don Benito sighed heavily, as if for breath.

“Why not adjourn to the cuddy,” said Captain Delano; “there is moreair there.” But the host sat silent and motionless.

Meantime his servant knelt before him, with a large fan of feathers.And Francesco coming in on tiptoes, handed the negro a little cup of aro-matic waters, with which at intervals he chafed his master’s brow; smooth-ing the hair along the temples as a nurse does a child’s. He spoke no word.He only rested his eye on his master’s, as if, amid all Don Benito’s distress,a little to refresh his spirit by the silent sight of fidelity.

Presently the ship’s bell sounded two o’clock; and through the cabin-windows a slight rippling of the sea was discerned; and from the desireddirection.

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“There,” exclaimed Captain Delano, “I told you so, Don Benito, look!”He had risen to his feet, speaking in a very animated tone, with a view

the more to rouse his companion. But though the crimson curtain of thestern-window near him that moment fluttered against his pale cheek, DonBenito seemed to have even less welcome for the breeze than the calm.

Poor fellow, thought Captain Delano, bitter experience has taught himthat one ripple does not make a wind, any more than one swallow a sum-mer. But he is mistaken for once. I will get his ship in for him, and prove it.

Briefly alluding to his weak condition, he urged his host to remainquietly where he was, since he (Captain Delano) would with pleasure takeupon himself the responsibility of making the best use of the wind.

Upon gaining the deck, Captain Delano started at the unexpected fig-ure of Atufal, monumentally fixed at the threshold, like one of those sculp-tured porters of black marble guarding the porches of Egyptian tombs.

But this time the start was, perhaps, purely physical. Atufal’s pres-ence, singularly attesting docility even in sullenness, was contrasted withthat of the hatchet-polishers, who in patience evinced their industry; whileboth spectacles showed, that lax as Don Benito’s general authority mightbe, still, whenever he chose to exert it, no man so savage or colossal butmust, more or less, bow.

Snatching a trumpet which hung from the bulwarks, with a free stepCaptain Delano advanced to the forward edge of the poop, issuing his ordersin his best Spanish. The few sailors and many negroes, all equally pleased,obediently set about heading the ship towards the harbor.

While giving some directions about setting a lower stu’n’-sail, suddenlyCaptain Delano heard a voice faithfully repeating his orders. Turning, hesaw Babo, now for the time acting, under the pilot, his original part of cap-tain of the slaves. This assistance proved valuable. Tattered sails and warpedyards were soon brought into some trim. And no brace or halyard was pulledbut to the blithe songs of the inspirited negroes.

Good fellows, thought Captain Delano, a little training would makefine sailors of them. Why see, the very women pull and sing too. Thesemust be some of those Ashantee negresses that make such capital sol-diers, I’ve heard. But who’s at the helm. I must have a good hand there.

He went to see.The San Dominick steered with a cumbrous tiller, with large horizon-

tal pullies attached. At each pully-end stood a subordinate black, and betweenthem, at the tiller-head, the responsible post, a Spanish seaman, whosecountenance evinced his due share in the general hopefulness and confi-dence at the coming of the breeze.

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He proved the same man who had behaved with so shame-faced an airon the windlass.

“Ah, — it is you, man,” exclaimed Captain Delano — “well, no moresheep’s-eyes now; — look straight forward and keep the ship so. Good hand,I trust? And want to get into the harbor, don’t you?”

The man assented with an inward chuckle, grasping the tiller-headfirmly. Upon this, unperceived by the American, the two blacks eyed thesailor intently.

Finding all right at the helm, the pilot went forward to the forecastle,to see how matters stood there.

The ship now had way enough to breast the current. With the approachof evening, the breeze would be sure to freshen.

Having done all that was needed for the present, Captain Delano, giv-ing his last orders to the sailors, turned aft to report affairs to Don Benito inthe cabin; perhaps additionally incited to rejoin him by the hope of snatch-ing a moment’s private chat while his servant was engaged upon deck.

From opposite sides, there were, beneath the poop, two approaches tothe cabin; one further forward than the other, and consequently commu-nicating with a longer passage. Marking the servant still above, CaptainDelano, taking the nighest entrance — the one last named, and at whose porchAtufal still stood — hurried on his way, till, arrived at the cabin threshold,he paused an instant, a little to recover from his eagerness. Then, with thewords of his intended business upon his lips, he entered. As he advancedtoward the seated Spaniard, he heard another footstep, keeping time withhis. From the opposite door, a salver in hand, the servant was likewiseadvancing.

“Confound the faithful fellow,” thought Captain Delano; “what a vex-atious coincidence.”

Possibly, the vexation might have been something different, were itnot for the brisk confidence inspired by the breeze. But even as it was, hefelt a slight twinge, from a sudden indefinite association in his mind ofBabo with Atufal.

“Don Benito,” said he, “I give you joy; the breeze will hold, and willincrease. By the way, your tall man and time-piece, Atufal, stands without.By your order, of course?”

Don Benito recoiled, as if at some bland satirical touch, delivered withsuch adroit garnish of apparent good-breeding as to present no handle forretort.

He is like one flayed alive, thought Captain Delano; where may onetouch him without causing a shrink?

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The servant moved before his master, adjusting a cushion; recalled tocivility, the Spaniard stiffly replied: “You are right. The slave appears whereyou saw him, according to my command; which is, that if at the given hourI am below, he must take his stand and abide my coming.”

“Ah now, pardon me, but that is treating the poor fellow like an ex-kingindeed. Ah, Don Benito,” smiling, “for all the license you permit in somethings, I fear lest, at bottom, you are a bitter hard master.”

Again Don Benito shrank; and this time, as the good sailor thought,from a genuine twinge of his conscience.

Again conversation became constrained. In vain Captain Delano calledattention to the now perceptible motion of the keel gently cleaving the sea;with lack-lustre eye, Don Benito returned words few and reserved.

By-and-by, the wind having steadily risen, and still blowing right intothe harbor, bore the San Dominick swiftly on. Rounding a point of land,the sealer at distance came into open view.

Meantime Captain Delano had again repaired to the deck, remainingthere some time. Having at last altered the ship’s course, so as to give thereef a wide berth, he returned for a few moments below.

I will cheer up my poor friend, this time, thought he.“Better and better, Don Benito,” he cried as he blithely reëntered; “there

will soon be an end to your cares, at least for awhile. For when, after a long,sad voyage, you know, the anchor drops into the haven, all its vast weightseems lifted from the captain’s heart. We are getting on famously, DonBenito. My ship is in sight. Look through this side-light here; there she is;all a-taunt-o! The Bachelor’s Delight, my good friend. Ah, how this windbraces one up. Come, you must take a cup of coffee with me this evening.My old steward will give you as fine a cup as ever any sultan tasted. Whatsay you, Don Benito, will you?”

At first, the Spaniard glanced feverishly up, casting a longing looktowards the sealer, while with mute concern his servant gazed into hisface. Suddenly the old ague of coldness returned, and dropping back to hiscushions he was silent.

“You do not answer. Come, all day you have been my host; would youhave hospitality all on one side?”

“I cannot go,” was the response.“What? it will not fatigue you. The ships will lie together as near as

they can, without swinging foul. It will be little more than stepping fromdeck to deck; which is but as from room to room. Come, come, you must notrefuse me.”

“I cannot go,” decisively and repulsively repeated Don Benito.

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Renouncing all but the last appearance of courtesy, with a sort of cadav-erous sullenness, and biting his thin nails to the quick, he glanced, almostglared, at his guest; as if impatient that a stranger’s presence should interferewith the full indulgence of his morbid hour. Meantime the sound of theparted waters came more and more gurglingly and merrily in at the windows;as reproaching him for his dark spleen; as telling him that, sulk as he might,and go mad with it, nature cared not a jot; since, whose fault was it, pray?

But the foul mood was now at its depth, as the fair wind at its height.There was something in the man so far beyond any mere unsociality

or sourness previously evinced, that even the forbearing good-nature ofhis guest could no longer endure it. Wholly at a loss to account for suchdemeanor, and deeming sickness with eccentricity, however extreme, no ade-quate excuse, well satisfied, too, that nothing in his own conduct could jus-tify it, Captain Delano’s pride began to be roused. Himself became reserved.But all seemed one to the Spaniard. Quitting him, therefore, Captain Delanoonce more went to the deck.

The ship was now within less than two miles of the sealer. The whale-boat was seen darting over the interval.

To be brief, the two vessels, thanks to the pilot’s skill, ere long inneighborly style lay anchored together.

Before returning to his own vessel, Captain Delano had intended com-municating to Don Benito the smaller details of the proposed services tobe rendered. But, as it was, unwilling anew to subject himself to rebuffs, heresolved, now that he had seen the San Dominick safely moored, immediatelyto quit her, without further allusion to hospitality or business. Indefinitelypostponing his ulterior plans, he would regulate his future actions accord-ing to future circumstances. His boat was ready to receive him; but hishost still tarried below. Well, thought Captain Delano, if he has little breed-ing, the more need to show mine. He descended to the cabin to bid a cere-monious, and, it may be, tacitly rebukeful adieu. But to his great satisfaction,Don Benito, as if he began to feel the weight of that treatment with whichhis slighted guest had, not indecorously, retaliated upon him, now sup-ported by his servant, rose to his feet, and grasping Captain Delano’s hand,stood tremulous; too much agitated to speak. But the good augury hencedrawn was suddenly dashed, by his resuming all his previous reserve, withaugmented gloom, as, with half-averted eyes, he silently reseated himselfon his cushions. With a corresponding return of his own chilled feelings,Captain Delano bowed and withdrew.

He was hardly midway in the narrow corridor, dim as a tunnel, leadingfrom the cabin to the stairs, when a sound, as of the tolling for execution

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in some jail-yard, fell on his ears. It was the echo of the ship’s flawed bell,striking the hour, drearily reverberated in this subterranean vault.Instantly, by a fatality not to be withstood, his mind, responsive to the por-tent, swarmed with superstitious suspicions. He paused. In images farswifter than these sentences, the minutest details of all his former dis-trusts swept through him.

Hitherto, credulous good-nature had been too ready to furnish excusesfor reasonable fears. Why was the Spaniard, so superfluously punctiliousat times, now heedless of common propriety in not accompanying to theside his departing guest? Did indisposition forbid? Indisposition had notforbidden more irksome exertion that day. His last equivocal demeanorrecurred. He had risen to his feet, grasped his guest’s hand, motionedtoward his hat; then, in an instant, all was eclipsed in sinister mutenessand gloom. Did this imply one brief, repentent [sic] relenting at the finalmoment, from some iniquitous plot, followed by remorseless return to it?His last glance seemed to express a calamitous, yet acquiescent farewell toCaptain Delano forever. Why decline the invitation to visit the sealer thatevening? Or was the Spaniard less hardened than the Jew,25 who refrainednot from supping at the board of him whom the same night he meant tobetray? What imported all those day-long enigmas and contradictions,except they were intended to mystify, preliminary to some stealthy blow?Atufal, the pretended rebel, but punctual shadow, that moment lurked bythe threshold without. He seemed a sentry, and more. Who, by his own con-fession, had stationed him there? Was the negro now lying in wait?

The Spaniard behind — his creature before: to rush from darkness tolight was the involuntary choice.

The next moment, with clenched jaw and hand, he passed Atufal, andstood unharmed in the light. As he saw his trim ship lying peacefully ather anchor, and almost within ordinary call; as he saw his household boat,with familiar faces in it, patiently rising and falling on the short waves bythe San Dominick’s side; and then, glancing about the decks where hestood, saw the oakum-pickers still gravely plying their fingers; and heardthe low, buzzing whistle and industrious hum of the hatchet-polishers,still bestirring themselves over their endless occupation; and more thanall, as he saw the benign aspect of nature, taking her innocent repose inthe evening; the screened sun in the quiet camp of the west shining outlike the mild light from Abraham’s tent; as charmed eye and ear took in all

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25. the Jew: Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus after the Last Supper.

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these, with the chained figure of the black, clenched jaw and hand relaxed.Once again he smiled at the phantoms which had mocked him, and feltsomething like a tinge of remorse, that, by harboring them even for amoment, he should, by implication, have betrayed an almost atheist doubtof the ever-watchful Providence above.

There was a few minutes’ delay, while, in obedience to his orders, theboat was being hooked along to the gangway. During this interval, a sort ofsaddened satisfaction stole over Captain Delano, at thinking of the kindlyoffices he had that day discharged for a stranger. Ah, thought he, aftergood actions one’s conscience is never ungrateful, however much so thebenefited party may be.

Presently, his foot, in the first act of descent into the boat, pressedthe first round of the side-ladder, his face presented inward upon the deck.In the same moment, he heard his name courteously sounded; and, to hispleased surprise, saw Don Benito advancing — an unwonted energy in hisair, as if, at the last moment, intent upon making amends for his recentdiscourtesy. With instinctive good feeling, Captain Delano, withdrawinghis foot, turned and reciprocally advanced. As he did so, the Spaniard’snervous eagerness increased, but his vital energy failed; so that, the betterto support him, the servant, placing his master’s hand on his naked shoul-der, and gently holding it there, formed himself into a sort of crutch.

When the two captains met, the Spaniard again fervently took the handof the American, at the same time casting an earnest glance into his eyes,but, as before, too much overcome to speak.

I have done him wrong, self-reproachfully thought Captain Delano; hisapparent coldness has deceived me; in no instance has he meant to offend.

Meantime, as if fearful that the continuance of the scene might toomuch unstring his master, the servant seemed anxious to terminate it.And so, still presenting himself as a crutch, and walking between the twocaptains, he advanced with them towards the gangway; while still, as if fullof kindly contrition, Don Benito would not let go the hand of Captain Delano,but retained it in his, across the black’s body.

Soon they were standing by the side, looking over into the boat, whosecrew turned up their curious eyes. Waiting a moment for the Spaniard torelinquish his hold, the now embarrassed Captain Delano lifted his foot, tooverstep the threshold of the open gangway; but still Don Benito would notlet go his hand. And yet, with an agitated tone, he said, “I can go no further;here I must bid you adieu. Adieu, my dear, dear Don Amasa. Go — go!” sud-denly tearing his hand loose, “go, and God guard you better than me, mybest friend.”

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Not unaffected, Captain Delano would now have lingered; but catchingthe meekly admonitory eye of the servant, with a hasty farewell he descendedinto his boat, followed by the continual adieus of Don Benito, standing rootedin the gangway.

Seating himself in the stern, Captain Delano, making a last salute,ordered the boat shoved off. The crew had their oars on end. The bowsmanpushed the boat a sufficient distance for the oars to be lengthwise dropped.The instant that was done, Don Benito sprang over the bulwarks, falling atthe feet of Captain Delano; at the same time, calling towards his ship, butin tones so frenzied, that none in the boat could understand him. But, as ifnot equally obtuse, three sailors, from three different and distant parts ofthe ship, splashed into the sea, swimming after their captain, as if intentupon his rescue.

The dismayed officer of the boat eagerly asked what this meant. Towhich, Captain Delano, turning a disdainful smile upon the unaccountableSpaniard, answered that, for his part, he neither knew nor cared; but itseemed as if Don Benito had taken it into his head to produce the impres-sion among his people that the boat wanted to kidnap him. “Or else — giveway for your lives,” he wildly added, starting at a clattering hubbub in theship, above which rang the tocsin of the hatchet-polishers; and seizingDon Benito by the throat he added, “this plotting pirate means murder!”Here, in apparent verification of the words, the servant, a dagger in his hand,was seen on the rail overhead, poised, in the act of leaping, as if with des-perate fidelity to befriend his master to the last; while, seemingly to aidthe black, the three white sailors were trying to clamber into the hamperedbow. Meantime, the whole host of negroes, as if inflamed at the sight of theirjeopardized captain, impended in one sooty avalanche over the bulwarks.

All this, with what preceded, and what followed, occurred with suchinvolutions of rapidity, that past, present, and future seemed one.

Seeing the negro coming, Captain Delano had flung the Spaniard aside,almost in the very act of clutching him, and, by the unconscious recoil,shifting his place, with arms thrown up, so promptly grappled the servantin his descent, that with dagger presented at Captain Delano’s heart, theblack seemed of purpose to have leaped there as to his mark. But theweapon was wrenched away, and the assailant dashed down into the bot-tom of the boat, which now, with disentangled oars, began to speed throughthe sea.

At this juncture, the left hand of Captain Delano, on one side, againclutched the half-reclined Don Benito, heedless that he was in a speechlessfaint, while his right foot, on the other side, ground the prostrate negro;

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and his right arm pressed for added speed on the after oar, his eye bent for-ward, encouraging his men to their utmost.

But here, the officer of the boat, who had at last succeeded in beatingoff the towing sailors, and was now, with face turned aft, assisting thebowsman at his oar, suddenly called to Captain Delano, to see what the blackwas about; while a Portuguese oarsman shouted to him to give heed towhat the Spaniard was saying.

Glancing down at his feet, Captain Delano saw the freed hand of the servant aiming with a second dagger — a small one, before concealed inhis wool — with this he was snakishly writhing up from the boat’s bottom,at the heart of his master, his countenance lividly vindictive, expressingthe centred purpose of his soul; while the Spaniard, half-choked, wasvainly shrinking away, with husky words, incoherent to all but thePortuguese.

That moment, across the long-benighted mind of Captain Delano, aflash of revelation swept, illuminating in unanticipated clearness his host’swhole mysterious demeanor, with every enigmatic event of the day, as wellas the entire past voyage of the San Dominick. He smote Babo’s handdown, but his own heart smote him harder. With infinite pity he withdrewhis hold from Don Benito. Not Captain Delano, but Don Benito, the black,in leaping into the boat, had intended to stab.

Both the black’s hands were held, as, glancing up towards the SanDominick, Captain Delano, now with the scales dropped from his eyes, sawthe negroes, not in misrule, not in tumult, not as if frantically concernedfor Don Benito, but with mask torn away, flourishing hatchets and knives, inferocious piratical revolt. Like delirious black dervishes, the six Ashanteesdanced on the poop. Prevented by their foes from springing into the water,the Spanish boys were hurrying up to the topmost spars, while such of thefew Spanish sailors, not already in the sea, less alert, were descried, help-lessly mixed in, on deck, with the blacks.

Meantime Captain Delano hailed his own vessel, ordering the ports up,and the guns run out. But by this time the cable of the San Dominick hadbeen cut; and the fag-end, in lashing out, whipped away the canvas shroudabout the beak, suddenly revealing, as the bleached hull swung roundtowards the open ocean, death for the figure-head, in a human skeleton;chalky comment on the chalked words below, “Follow your leader.”

At the sight, Don Benito, covering his face, wailed out: “’Tis he, Aranda!my murdered, unburied friend!”

Upon reaching the sealer, calling for ropes, Captain Delano bound thenegro, who made no resistance, and had him hoisted to the deck. He would

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then have assisted the now almost helpless Don Benito up the side; butDon Benito, wan as he was, refused to move, or be moved, until the negroshould have been first put below out of view. When, presently assured thatit was done, he no more shrank from the ascent.

The boat was immediately dispatched back to pick up the three swim-ming sailors. Meantime, the guns were in readiness, though, owing to theSan Dominick having glided somewhat astern of the sealer, only the after-most one could be brought to bear. With this, they fired six times; thinkingto cripple the fugitive ship by bringing down her spars. But only a fewinconsiderable ropes were shot away. Soon the ship was beyond the gun’srange, steering broad out of the bay; the blacks thickly clustering roundthe bowsprit, one moment with taunting cries towards the whites, the nextwith upthrown gestures hailing the now dusky moors of ocean — cawingcrows escaped from the hand of the fowler.

The first impulse was to slip the cables and give chase. But, upon secondthoughts, to pursue with whale-boat and yawl seemed more promising.

Upon inquiring of Don Benito what fire arms they had on board theSan Dominick, Captain Delano was answered that they had none that couldbe used; because, in the earlier stages of the mutiny, a cabin-passenger,since dead, had secretly put out of order the locks of what few musketsthere were. But with all his remaining strength, Don Benito entreated theAmerican not to give chase, either with ship or boat; for the negroes hadalready proved themselves such desperadoes, that, in case of a presentassault, nothing but a total massacre of the whites could be looked for.But, regarding this warning as coming from one whose spirit had beencrushed by misery, the American did not give up his design.

The boats were got ready and armed. Captain Delano ordered his meninto them. He was going himself when Don Benito grasped his arm.

“What! have you saved my life, señor, and are you now going to throwaway your own?”

The officers also, for reasons connected with their interests and thoseof the voyage, and a duty owing to the owners, strongly objected against theircommander’s going. Weighing their remonstrances a moment, CaptainDelano felt bound to remain; appointing his chief mate — an athletic andresolute man, who had been a privateer’s-man, and, as his enemies whis-pered, a pirate — to head the party. The more to encourage the sailors, theywere told, that the Spanish captain considered his ship as good as lost;that she and her cargo, including some gold and silver, were worth morethan a thousand doubloons. Take her, and no small part should be theirs.The sailors replied with a shout.

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The fugitives had now almost gained an offing. It was nearly night;but the moon was rising. After hard, prolonged pulling, the boats came upon the ship’s quarters, at a suitable distance laying upon their oars to dis-charge their muskets. Having no bullets to return, the negroes sent theiryells. But, upon the second volley, Indian-like, they hurtled their hatchets.One took off a sailor’s fingers. Another struck the whale-boat’s bow, cut-ting off the rope there, and remaining stuck in the gunwale like a wood-man’s axe. Snatching it, quivering from its lodgment, the mate hurled itback. The returned gauntlet now stuck in the ship’s broken quarter-gallery,and so remained.

The negroes giving too hot a reception, the whites kept a more respect-ful distance. Hovering now just out of reach of the hurtling hatchets, they,with a view to the close encounter which must soon come, sought to decoythe blacks into entirely disarming themselves of their most murderousweapons in a hand-to-hand fight, by foolishly flinging them, as missiles,short of the mark, into the sea. But ere long perceiving the stratagem, thenegroes desisted, though not before many of them had to replace their losthatchets with handspikes; an exchange which, as counted upon, proved inthe end favorable to the assailants.

Meantime, with a strong wind, the ship still clove the water; the boatsalternately falling behind, and pulling up, to discharge fresh volleys.

The fire was mostly directed towards the stern, since there, chiefly, thenegroes, at present, were clustering. But to kill or maim the negroes was notthe object. To take them, with the ship, was the object. To do it, the ship mustbe boarded; which could not be done by boats while she was sailing so fast.

A thought now struck the mate. Observing the Spanish boys still aloft,high as they could get, he called to them to descend to the yards, and cutadrift the sails. It was done. About this time, owing to causes hereafter tobe shown, two Spaniards, in the dress of sailors and conspicuously show-ing themselves, were killed; not by volleys, but by deliberate marksman’sshots; while, as it afterwards appeared, by one of the general discharges,Atufal, the black, and the Spaniard at the helm likewise were killed. Whatnow, with the loss of the sails, and loss of leaders, the ship became unman-ageable to the negroes.

With creaking masts, she came heavily round to the wind; the prowslowly swinging, into view of the boats, its skeleton gleaming in the hori-zontal moonlight, and casting a gigantic ribbed shadow upon the water. Oneextended arm of the ghost seemed beckoning the whites to avenge it.

“Follow your leader!” cried the mate; and, one on each bow, the boatsboarded. Sealing-spears and cutlasses crossed hatchets and handspikes.

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Huddled upon the long-boat amidships, the negresses raised a wailing chant,whose chorus was the clash of the steel.

For a time, the attack wavered; the negroes wedging themselves tobeat it back; the half-repelled sailors, as yet unable to gain a footing, fight-ing as troopers in the saddle, one leg sideways flung over the bulwarks,and one without, plying their cutlasses like carters’ whips. But in vain.They were almost overborne, when, rallying themselves into a squad as oneman, with a huzza, they sprang inboard; where, entangled, they involuntar-ily separated again. For a few breaths’ space, there was a vague, muffled,inner sound, as of submerged sword-fish rushing hither and thither throughshoals of black-fish. Soon, in a reunited band, and joined by the Spanishseamen, the whites came to the surface, irresistibly driving the negroestoward the stern. But a barricade of casks and sacks, from side to side, hadbeen thrown up by the mainmast. Here the negroes faced about, andthough scorning peace or truce, yet fain would have had a respite. But,without pause, overleaping the barrier, the unflagging sailors again closed.Exhausted, the blacks now fought in despair. Their red tongues lolled, wolf-like, from their black mouths. But the pale sailors’ teeth were set; not aword was spoken; and, in five minutes more, the ship was won.

Nearly a score of the negroes were killed. Exclusive of those by the balls,many were mangled; their wounds — mostly inflicted by the long-edgedsealing-spears — resembling those shaven ones of the English at PrestonPans,26 made by the poled scythes of the Highlanders. On the other side,none were killed, though several were wounded; some severely, includingthe mate. The surviving negroes were temporarily secured, and the ship,towed back into the harbor at midnight, once more lay anchored.

Omitting the incidents and arrangements ensuing, suffice it that, aftertwo days spent in refitting, the two ships sailed in company for Conception,in Chili, and thence for Lima, in Peru; where, before the vice-regal courts,the whole affair, from the beginning, underwent investigation.

Though, midway on the passage, the ill-fated Spaniard, relaxed fromconstraint, showed some signs of regaining health with free-will; yet, agree-ably to his own foreboding, shortly before arriving at Lima, he relapsed,finally becoming so reduced as to be carried ashore in arms. Hearing of hisstory and plight, one of the many religious institutions of the City of Kingsopened an hospitable refuge to him, where both physician and priest were

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26. Preston Pans: Battle in 1745 where a force of Scottish Highlanders led by Charles EdwardStuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) routed the English army outside Edinburgh.

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his nurses, and a member of the order volunteered to be his one specialguardian and consoler, by night and by day.

The following extracts, translated from one of the official Spanishdocuments, will it is hoped, shed light on the preceding narrative, as wellas, in the first place, reveal the true port of departure and true history ofthe San Dominick’s voyage, down to the time of her touching at the islandof St. Maria.

But, ere the extracts come, it may be well to preface them with a remark.The document selected, from among many others, for partial transla-

tion, contains the deposition of Benito Cereno; the first taken in the case.Some disclosures therein were, at the time, held dubious for both learnedand natural reasons. The tribunal inclined to the opinion that the depon-ent, not undisturbed in his mind by recent events, raved of some thingswhich could never have happened. But subsequent depositions of the sur-viving sailors, bearing out the revelations of their captain in several of thestrangest particulars, gave credence to the rest. So that the tribunal, in itsfinal decision, rested its capital sentences upon statements which, hadthey lacked confirmation, it would have deemed it but duty to reject.

I, DON JOSE DE ABOS AND PADILLA, His Majesty’s Notary for the RoyalRevenue, and Register of this Province, and Notary Public of the HolyCrusade of this Bishopric, etc.

Do certify and declare, as much as is requisite in law, that, in thecriminal cause commenced the twenty-fourth of the month of September,in the year seventeen hundred and ninety-nine, against the negroes of theship San Dominick, the following declaration before me was made.

Declaration of the first witness, DON BENITO CERENO.

The same day, and month, and year, His Honor, Doctor JuanMartinez de Rozas, Councilor of the Royal Audience of thisKingdom, and learned in the law of this Intendency, ordered thecaptain of the ship San Dominick, Don Benito Cereno, to appear;which he did in his litter, attended by the monk Infelez; of whomhe received the oath, which he took by God, our Lord, and a signof the Cross; under which he promised to tell the truth ofwhatever he should know and should be asked; — and beinginterrogated agreeably to the tenor of the act commencing theprocess, he said, that on the twentieth of May last, he set sailwith his ship from the port of Valparaiso, bound to that of

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Callao; loaded with the produce of the country beside thirtycases of hardware and one hundred and sixty blacks, of bothsexes, mostly belonging to Don Alexandro Aranda, gentleman, ofthe city of Mendoza; that the crew of the ship consisted of thirty-six men, beside the persons who went as passengers; that thenegroes were in part as follows:

[Here, in the original, follows a list of some fifty names,

descriptions, and ages, compiled from certain recovered

documents of Aranda’s, and also from recollections of the

deponent, from which portions only are extracted.]

— One, from about eighteen to nineteen years, named José,and this was the man that waited upon his master, Don Alexandro,and who speaks well the Spanish, having served him four or fiveyears; * * * a mulatto, named Francesco, the cabin steward, of agood person and voice, having sung in the Valparaiso churches,native of the province of Buenos Ayres, aged about thirty-fiveyears. * * * A smart negro, named Dago, who had been for manyyears a grave-digger among the Spaniards, aged forty-six years.* * * Four old negroes, born in Africa, from sixty to seventy, butsound, calkers by trade, whose names are as follows: — the firstwas named Mure, and he was killed (as was also his son namedDiamelo); the second, Natu; the third, Yola, likewise killed; thefourth, Ghofan; and six full-grown negroes, aged from thirty toforty-five, all raw, and born among the Ashantees — Matiluqui,Yau, Lecbe, Mapenda, Yambaio, Akim; four of whom were killed;* * * a powerful negro named Atufal, who, being supposed tohave been a chief in Africa, his owners set great store by him. * * *And a small negro of Senegal, but some years among theSpaniards, aged about thirty, which negro’s name was Babo; * * *that he does not remember the names of the others, but that stillexpecting the residue of Don Alexandro’s papers will be found, willthen take due account of them all, and remit to the court; * * *and thirty-nine women and children of all ages.

[The catalogue over, the deposition goes on:]

* * * That all the negroes slept upon deck, as is customary inthis navigation, and none wore fetters, because the owner, his

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friend Aranda, told him that they were all tractable; * * * that onthe seventh day after leaving port, at three o’clock in the morning,all the Spaniards being asleep except the two officers on the watch,who were the boatswain, Juan Robles, and the carpenter, JuanBautista Gayete, and the helmsman and his boy, the negroesrevolted suddenly, wounded dangerously the boatswain and thecarpenter, and successively killed eighteen men of those whowere sleeping upon deck, some with hand-spikes and hatchets,and others by throwing them alive overboard, after tying them;that of the Spaniards upon deck, they left about seven, as hethinks, alive and tied, to manœuvre the ship, and three or fourmore, who hid themselves, remained also alive. Although in theact of revolt the negroes made themselves masters of the hatchway,six or seven wounded went through it to the cockpit, without anyhindrance on their part; that during the act of revolt, the mateand another person, whose name he does not recollect, attemptedto come up through the hatchway, but being quickly wounded,they were obliged to return to the cabin; that the deponent resolvedat break of day to come up the companion-way, where the negroBabo was, being the ringleader, and Atufal, who assisted him, andhaving spoken to them, exhorted them to cease committing suchatrocities, asking them, at the same time, what they wanted andintended to do, offering, himself, to obey their commands; that,notwithstanding this, they threw, in his presence, three men, aliveand tied, overboard; that they told the deponent to come up, andthat they would not kill him; which having done, the negro Baboasked him whether there were in those seas any negro countrieswhere they might be carried, and he answered them, No; that thenegro Babo afterwards told him to carry them to Senegal, or tothe neighboring islands of St. Nicolas; and he answered, that thiswas impossible, on account of the great distance, the necessityinvolved of rounding Cape Horn, the bad condition of the vessel,the want of provisions, sails, and water; but that the negro Baboreplied to him he must carry them in any way; that they would doand conform themselves to everything the deponent should requireas to eating and drinking; that after a long conference, beingabsolutely compelled to please them, for they threatened him tokill all the whites if they were not, at all events, carried to Senegal,he told them that what was most wanting for the voyage waswater; that they would go near the coast to take it, and thence

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they would proceed on their course; that the negro Babo agreed toit; and the deponent steered towards the intermediate ports,hoping to meet some Spanish or foreign vessel that would savethem; that within ten or eleven days they saw the land, andcontinued their course by it in the vicinity of Nasca; that thedeponent observed that the negroes were now restless andmutinous, because he did not effect the taking in of water, thenegro Babo having required, with threats, that it should be done,without fail, the following day; he told him they saw plainly that thecoast was steep, and the rivers designated in the maps were not tobe found, with other reasons suitable to the circumstances; that thebest way would be to go to the island of Santa Maria, where theymight water and victual easily, it being a solitary island, as theforeigners did; that the deponent did not go to Pisco, that was near,nor make any other port of the coast, because the negro Babo hadintimated to him several times, that he would kill all the whites thevery moment he should perceive any city, town, or settlement ofany kind on the shores to which they should be carried: that havingdetermined to go to the island of Santa Maria, as the deponent hadplanned, for the purpose of trying whether, on the passage or nearthe island itself, they could find any vessel that should favor them,or whether he could escape from it in a boat to the neighboringcoast of Arauco; to adopt the necessary means he immediatelychanged his course, steering for the island; that the negroes Baboand Atufal held daily conferences, in which they discussed whatwas necessary for their design of returning to Senegal, whetherthey were to kill all the Spaniards, and particularly the deponent;that eight days after parting from the coast of Nasca, the deponentbeing on the watch a little after day-break, and soon after thenegroes had their meeting, the negro Babo came to the place wherethe deponent was, and told him that he had determined to kill hismaster, Don Alexandro Aranda, both because he and hiscompanions could not otherwise be sure of their liberty, and that,to keep the seamen in subjection, he wanted to prepare a warningof what road they should be made to take did they or any of themoppose him; and that, by means of the death of Don Alexandro, thatwarning would best be given; but, that what this last meant, thedeponent did not at the time comprehend, nor could not, furtherthan that the death of Don Alexandro was intended; and moreover,the negro Babo proposed to the deponent to call the mate Raneds,

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who was sleeping in the cabin, before the thing was done, for fear,as the deponent understood it, that the mate, who was a goodnavigator, should be killed with Don Alexandro and the rest; thatthe deponent, who was the friend, from youth, of Don Alexandro,prayed and conjured, but all was useless; for the negro Baboanswered him that the thing could not be prevented, and that allthe Spaniards risked their death if they should attempt to frustratehis will in this matter, or any other; that, in this conflict, thedeponent called the mate, Raneds, who was forced to go apart, andimmediately the negro Babo commanded the Ashantee Matiluquiand the Ashantee Lecbe to go and commit the murder; that thosetwo went down with hatchets to the berth of Don Alexandro; that,yet half alive and mangled, they dragged him on deck; that theywere going to throw him overboard in that state, but the negroBabo stopped them, bidding the murder be completed on the deckbefore him, which was done, when, by his orders, the body wascarried below, forward; that nothing more was seen of it by thedeponent for three days; * * * that Don Alonzo Sidonia, an old man,long resident at Valparaiso, and lately appointed to a civil office inPeru, whither he had taken passage, was at the time sleeping in theberth opposite Don Alexandro’s; that, awakening at his cries,surprised by them, and at the sight of the negroes with their bloodyhatchets in their hands, he threw himself into the sea through awindow which was near him, and was drowned, without it being inthe power of the deponent to assist or take him up; * * * that, ashort time after killing Aranda, they brought upon deck hisgerman-cousin, of middle-age, Don Francisco Masa, of Mendoza,and the young Don Joaquin, Marques de Arambaolaza, then latelyfrom Spain, with his Spanish servant Ponce, and the three youngclerks of Aranda, José Morairi, Lorenzo Bargas, and HermenegildoGandix, all of Cadiz; that Don Joaquin and Hermenegildo Gandix,the negro Babo for purposes hereafter to appear, preserved alive;but Don Francisco Masa, José Morairi, and Lorenzo Bargas, withPonce the servant, beside the boatswain, Juan Robles, theboatswain’s mates, Manuel Viscaya and Roderigo Hurta, and fourof the sailors, the negro Babo ordered to be thrown alive into thesea, although they made no resistance, nor begged for anythingelse but mercy; that the boatswain, Juan Robles, who knew how toswim, kept the longest above water, making acts of contrition, and,in the last words he uttered, charged this deponent to cause mass

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to be said for his soul to our Lady of Succor; * * * that, during thethree days which followed, the deponent, uncertain what fate hadbefallen the remains of Don Alexandro, frequently asked the negroBabo where they were, and, if still on board, whether they were tobe preserved for interment ashore, entreating him so to order it;that the negro Babo answered nothing till the fourth day, when atsunrise, the deponent coming on deck, the negro Babo showed hima skeleton, which had been substituted for the ship’s proper figure-head, the image of Christopher Colon, the discoverer of the NewWorld; that the negro Babo asked him whose skeleton that was,and whether, from its whiteness, he should not think it a white’s;that, upon his covering his face, the negro Babo, coming close, saidwords to this effect: “Keep faith with the blacks from here toSenegal, or you shall in spirit, as now in body, follow your leader,”pointing to the prow; * * * that the same morning the negro Babotook by succession each Spaniard forward, and asked him whoseskeleton that was, and whether, from its whiteness, he should notthink it a white’s; that each Spaniard covered his face; that then toeach the negro Babo repeated the words in the first place said tothe deponent; * * * that they (the Spaniards), being then assembledaft, the negro Babo harangued them, saying that he had now doneall; that the deponent (as navigator for the negroes) might pursuehis course, warning him and all of them that they should, soul andbody, go the way of Don Alexandro if he saw them (the Spaniards)speak or plot anything against them (the negroes) — a threat whichwas repeated every day; that, before the events last mentioned, theyhad tied the cook to throw him overboard, for it is not known whatthing they heard him speak, but finally the negro Babo spared hislife, at the request of the deponent; that a few days after, thedeponent, endeavoring not to omit any means to preserve the livesof the remaining whites, spoke to the negroes peace andtranquillity, and agreed to draw up a paper, signed by the deponentand the sailors who could write, as also by the negro Babo, forhimself and all the blacks, in which the deponent obliged himselfto carry them to Senegal, and they not to kill any more, and heformally to make over to them the ship, with the cargo, with whichthey were for that time satisfied and quieted. * * * But the next day,the more surely to guard against the sailors’ escape, the negro Babocommanded all the boats to be destroyed but the long-boat, whichwas unseaworthy, and another, a cutter in good condition, which,

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knowing it would yet be wanted for towing the water casks, he hadit lowered down into the hold.

* * * * *

[Various particulars of the prolonged and perplexed

navigation ensuing here follow, with incidents of a calamitous

calm, from which portion one passage is extracted, to wit:]

— That on the fifth day of the calm, all on board suffering muchfrom the heat, and want of water, and five having died in fits,and mad, the negroes became irritable, and for a chance gesture,which they deemed suspicious — though it was harmless — madeby the mate, Raneds, to the deponent, in the act of handing aquadrant, they killed him; but that for this they afterwards weresorry, the mate being the only remaining navigator on board,except the deponent.

* * * * *

— That omitting other events, which daily happened, and whichcan only serve uselessly to recall past misfortunes and conflicts,after seventy-three days’ navigation, reckoned from the time theysailed from Nasca, during which they navigated under a scantyallowance of water, and were afflicted with the calms beforementioned, they at last arrived at the island of Santa Maria, on theseventeenth of the month of August, at about six o’clock in theafternoon, at which hour they cast anchor very near the Americanship, Bachelor’s Delight, which lay in the same bay, commanded bythe generous Captain Amasa Delano; but at six o’clock in themorning, they had already descried the port, and the negroesbecame uneasy, as soon as at distance they saw the ship, nothaving expected to see one there; that the negro Babo pacifiedthem, assuring them that no fear need be had; that straightway heordered the figure on the bow to be covered with canvas, as forrepairs, and had the decks a little set in order; that for a time thenegro Babo and the negro Atufal conferred; that the negro Atufalwas for sailing away, but the negro Babo would not, and, byhimself, cast about what to do; that at last he came to thedeponent, proposing to him to say and do all that the deponentdeclares to have said and done to the American captain; * * * * * * that the negro Babo warned him that if he varied in the

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least, or uttered any word, or gave any look that should give theleast intimation of the past events or present state, he wouldinstantly kill him, with all his companions, showing a dagger,which he carried hid, saying something which, as he understood it,meant that the dagger would be alert as his eye; that the negroBabo then announced the plan to all his companions, whichpleased them; that he then, the better to disguise the truth,devised many expedients, in some of them uniting deceit anddefense; that of this sort was the device of the six Ashantees beforenamed, who were his bravoes; that them he stationed on the breakof the poop, as if to clean certain hatchets (in cases, which werepart of the cargo), but in reality to use them, and distribute them atneed, and at a given word he told them; that, among other devices,was the device of presenting Atufal, his right-hand man, aschained, though in a moment the chains could be dropped; that inevery particular he informed the deponent what part he wasexpected to enact in every device, and what story he was to tell onevery occasion, always threatening him with instant death if hevaried in the least: that, conscious that many of the negroes wouldbe turbulent, the negro Babo appointed the four aged negroes, whowere calkers, to keep what domestic order they could on the decks;that again and again he harangued the Spaniards and hiscompanions; informing them of his intent, and of his devices, andof the invented story that this deponent was to tell, charging themlest any of them varied from that story; that these arrangementswere made and matured during the interval of two or three hours,between their first sighting the ship and the arrival on board ofCaptain Amasa Delano; that this happened about half-past seveno’clock in the morning, Captain Amasa Delano coming in his boat,and all gladly receiving him; that the deponent, as well as he couldforce himself, acting then the part of principal owner, and a freecaptain of the ship, told Captain Amasa Delano, when called upon,that he came from Buenos Ayres, bound to Lima, with threehundred negroes; that off Cape Horn, and in a subsequent fever,many negroes had died; that also, by similar casualties, all the seaofficers and the greatest part of the crew had died.

* * * * *

[And so the deposition goes on, circumstantially recounting

the fictitious story dictated to the deponent by Babo, and through

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the deponent imposed upon Captain Delano; and also recounting

the friendly offers of Captain Delano, with other things, but all of

which is here omitted. After the fictitious, strange story, etc., the

deposition proceeds:]

— that the generous Captain Amasa Delano remained on boardall the day, till he left the ship anchored at six o’clock in theevening, deponent speaking to him always of his pretendedmisfortunes, under the forementioned principles, withouthaving had it in his power to tell a single word, or give him theleast hint, that he might know the truth and state of things;because the negro Babo, performing the office of an officiousservant with all the appearance of submission of the humbleslave, did not leave the deponent one moment; that this was inorder to observe the deponent’s actions and words, for the negroBabo understands well the Spanish; and besides, there werethereabout some others who were constantly on the watch, andlikewise understood the Spanish; * * * that upon one occasion,while deponent was standing on the deck conversing withAmasa Delano, by a secret sign the negro Babo drew him (thedeponent) aside, the act appearing as if originating with thedeponent; that then, he being drawn aside, the negro Baboproposed to him to gain from Amasa Delano full particularsabout his ship, and crew, and arms; that the deponent asked “Forwhat?” that the negro Babo answered he might conceive; that,grieved at the prospect of what might overtake the generousCaptain Amasa Delano, the deponent at first refused to ask thedesired questions, and used every argument to induce the negroBabo to give up this new design; that the negro Babo showed the point of his dagger; that, after the information had beenobtained, the negro Babo again drew him aside, telling him thatthat very night he (the deponent) would be captain of two ships,instead of one, for that, great part of the American’s ship’s crewbeing to be absent fishing, the six Ashantees, without any oneelse, would easily take it; that at this time he said other things tothe same purpose; that no entreaties availed; that, before AmasaDelano’s coming on board, no hint had been given touching thecapture of the American ship: that to prevent this project thedeponent was powerless; * * * — that in some things his memoryis confused he cannot distinctly recall every event; * * * — that

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as soon as they had cast anchor at six of the clock in theevening, as has before been stated, the American Captain tookleave to return to his vessel; that upon a sudden impulse, whichthe deponent believes to have come from God and his angels, he,after the farewell had been said, followed the generous CaptainAmasa Delano as far as the gunwale, where he stayed, underpretense of taking leave, until Amasa Delano should have beenseated in his boat; that on shoving off, the deponent sprang fromthe gunwale into the boat, and fell into it, he knows not how, Godguarding him; that —

* * * * *[Here, in the original, follows the account of what further

happened at the escape, and how the San Dominick was

retaken, and of the passage to the coast; including in the recital

many expressions of “eternal gratitude” to the “generous Captain

Amasa Delano.” The deposition then proceeds with recapitulatory

remarks, and a partial renumeration of the negroes, making

record of their individual part in the past events, with a view to

furnishing, according to command of the court, the data whereon

to found the criminal sentences to be pronounced. From this

portion is the following:]

— That he believes that all the negroes, though not in the first place knowing to the design of revolt, when it wasaccomplished, approved it. * * * That the negro, José, eighteenyears old, and in the personal service of Don Alexandro, was theone who communicated the information to the negro Babo,about the state of things in the cabin, before the revolt; that thisis known, because, in the preceding midnights, he used to comefrom his berth, which was under his master’s, in the cabin, to thedeck where the ringleader and his associates were, and hadsecret conversations with the negro Babo, in which he wasseveral times seen by the mate; that, one night, the mate drovehim away twice; * * that this same negro José, was the one who,without being commanded to do so by the negro Babo, as Lecbeand Matiluqui were, stabbed his master, Don Alexandro, after hehad been dragged half-lifeless to the deck; * * that the mulattosteward, Francesco, was of the first band of revolters, that hewas, in all things, the creature and tool of the negro Babo; that,to make his court, he, just before a repast in the cabin, proposed,

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to the negro Babo, poisoning a dish for the generous CaptainAmasa Delano; this is known and believed, because the negroeshave said it; but that the negro Babo, having another design,forbade Francesco; * * that the Ashantee Lecbe was one of theworst of them; for that, on the day the ship was retaken, heassisted in the defense of her, with a hatchet in each hand, withone of which he wounded, in the breast, the chief mate of AmasaDelano, in the first act of boarding; this all knew; that, in sightof the deponent, Lecbe struck, with a hatchet, Don FranciscoMasa when, by the negro Babo’s orders, he was carrying him tothrow him overboard, alive; beside participating in the murder,before mentioned, of Don Alexandro Aranda, and others of thecabin-passengers; that, owing to the fury with which theAshantees fought in the engagement with the boats, but thisLecbe and Yau survived; that Yau was bad as Lecbe; that Yau wasthe man who, by Babo’s command, willingly prepared theskeleton of Don Alexandro, in a way the negroes afterwards toldthe deponent, but which he, so long as reason is left him, cannever divulge; that Yau and Lecbe were the two who, in a calm bynight, riveted the skeleton to the bow; this also the negroes toldhim; that the negro Babo was he who traced the inscriptionbelow it; that the negro Babo was the plotter from first to last; heordered every murder, and was the helm and keel of the revolt;that Atufal was his lieutenant in all; but Atufal, with his ownhand, committed no murder; nor did the negro Babo; * * thatAtufal was shot, being killed in the fight with the boats, ereboarding; * * that the negresses, of age, were knowing to therevolt, and testified themselves satisfied at the death of theirmaster, Don Alexandro; that, had the negroes not restrainedthem, they would have tortured to death, instead of simplykilling, the Spaniards slain by command of the negro Babo; thatthe negresses used their utmost influence to have the deponentmade away with; that, in the various acts of murder, they sangsongs and danced — not gaily, but solemnly; and before theengagement with the boats, as well as during the action, theysang melancholy songs to the negroes, and that this melancholytone was more inflaming than a different one would have been,and was so intended; that all this is believed, because thenegroes have said it.

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— that of the thirty-six men of the crew exclusive of the passengers,(all of whom are now dead), which the deponent had knowledgeof, six only remained alive, with four cabin-boys and ship-boys,not included with the crew; * * — that the negroes broke an armof one of the cabin-boys and gave him strokes with hatchets.

[Then follow various random disclosures referring to various

periods of time. The following are extracted:]

— That during the presence of Captain Amasa Delano on board,some attempts were made by the sailors, and one by HermenegildoGandix, to convey hints to him of the true state of affairs; butthat these attempts were ineffectual, owing to fear of incurringdeath, and furthermore owing to the devices which offeredcontradictions to the true state of affairs; as well as owing to thegenerosity and piety of Amasa Delano incapable of soundingsuch wickedness; * * * that Luys Galgo, a sailor about sixtyyears of age, and formerly of the king’s navy, was one of thosewho sought to convey tokens to Captain Amasa Delano; but hisintent, though undiscovered, being suspected, he was, on apretense, made to retire out of sight, and at last into the hold,and there was made away with. This the negroes have since said;* * * that one of the ship-boys feeling, from Captain AmasaDelano’s presence, some hopes of release, and not havingenough prudence, dropped some chance-word respecting hisexpectations, which being overheard and understood by a slave-boy with whom he was eating at the time, the latter struck himon the head with a knife, inflicting a bad wound, but of whichthe boy is now healing; that likewise, not long before the shipwas brought to anchor, one of the seamen, steering at the time,endangered himself by letting the blacks remark some expressionin his countenance, arising from a cause similar to the above;but this sailor, by his heedful after conduct, escaped; * * * thatthese statements are made to show the court that from thebeginning to the end of the revolt, it was impossible for thedeponent and his men to act otherwise than they did; * * * — thatthe third clerk, Hermenegildo Gandix, who before had been forcedto live among the seamen, wearing a seaman’s habit, and in allrespects appearing to be one for the time; he, Gandix, was killed

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by a musket-ball fired through a mistake from the American boatsbefore boarding; having in his fright ran up the mizzen-rigging,calling to the boats — “don’t board,” lest upon their boarding thenegroes should kill him; that this inducing the Americans tobelieve he some way favored the cause of the negroes, they firedtwo balls at him, so that he fell wounded from the rigging, andwas drowned in the sea; * * * — that the young Don Joaquin,Marques de Arambaolaza, like Hermenegildo Gandix, the thirdclerk, was degraded to the office and appearance of a commonseaman; that upon one occasion when Don Joaquin shrank, thenegro Babo commanded the Ashantee Lecbe to take tar and heatit, and pour it upon Don Joaquin’s hands; * * * — that Don Joaquinwas killed owing to another mistake of the Americans, but oneimpossible to be avoided, as upon the approach of the boats, DonJoaquin, with a hatchet tied edge out and upright to his hand,was made by the negroes to appear on the bulwarks; whereupon,seen with arms in his hands and in a questionable attitude, hewas shot for a renegade seaman; * * * — that on the person ofDon Joaquin was found secreted a jewel, which, by papers thatwere discovered, proved to have been meant for the shrine of ourLady of Mercy in Lima; a votive offering, beforehand preparedand guarded, to attest his gratitude, when he should have landedin Peru, his last destination, for the safe conclusion of his entirevoyage from Spain; * * * — that the jewel, with the other effectsof the late Don Joaquin, is in the custody of the brethren of theHospital de Sacerdotes, awaiting the disposition of the honorablecourt; * * * — that, owing to the condition of the deponent, aswell as the haste in which the boats departed for the attack, theAmericans were not forewarned that there were, among theapparent crew, a passenger and one of the clerks disguised bythe negro Babo; * * * — that, beside the negroes killed in theaction, some were killed after the capture and re-anchoring atnight, when shackled to the ring-bolts on deck; that these deathswere committed by the sailors, ere they could be prevented. Thatso soon as informed of it, Captain Amasa Delano used all hisauthority, and, in particular with his own hand, struck downMartinez Gola, who, having found a razor in the pocket of an oldjacket of his, which one of the shackled negroes had on, wasaiming it at the negro’s throat; that the noble Captain AmasaDelano also wrenched from the hand of Bartholomew Barlo, a

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dagger secreted at the time of the massacre of the whites, withwhich he was in the act of stabbing a shackled negro, who, thesame day, with another negro, had thrown him down and jumpedupon him; * * * — that, for all the events, befalling through solong a time, during which the ship was in the hands of the negroBabo, he cannot here give account; but that, what he has said isthe most substantial of what occurs to him at present, and is thetruth under the oath which he has taken; which declaration heaffirmed and ratified, after hearing it read to him.

He said that he is twenty-nine years of age, and broken inbody and mind; that when finally dismissed by the court, heshall not return home to Chili, but betake himself to themonastery on Mount Agonia without; and signed with his honor,and crossed himself, and, for the time, departed as he came, inhis litter, with the monk Infelez, to the Hospital de Sacerdotes.

BENITO CERENO.

DOCTOR ROZAS.

If the Deposition have served as the key to fit into the lock of the com-plications which precede it, then, as a vault whose door has been flungback, the San Dominick’s hull lies open to-day.

Hitherto the nature of this narrative, besides rendering the intrica-cies in the beginning unavoidable, has more or less required that manythings, instead of being set down in the order of occurrence, should be ret-rospectively, or irregularly given; this last is the case with the followingpassages, which will conclude the account:

During the long, mild voyage to Lima, there was, as before hinted, aperiod during which the sufferer a little recovered his health, or, at least insome degree, his tranquillity. Ere the decided relapse which came, the twocaptains had many cordial conversations — their fraternal unreserve in sin-gular contrast with former withdrawments.

Again and again, it was repeated, how hard it had been to enact thepart forced on the Spaniard by Babo.

“Ah, my dear friend,” Don Benito once said, “at those very times whenyou thought me so morose and ungrateful, nay, when, as you now admit,you half thought me plotting your murder, at those very times my heartwas frozen; I could not look at you, thinking of what, both on board thisship and your own, hung, from other hands, over my kind benefactor. And asGod lives, Don Amasa, I know not whether desire for my own safety alone

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could have nerved me to that leap into your boat, had it not been for thethought that, did you, unenlightened, return to your ship, you, my best friend,with all who might be with you, stolen upon, that night, in your hammocks,would never in this world have wakened again. Do but think how you walkedthis deck, how you sat in this cabin, every inch of ground mined into honey-combs under you. Had I dropped the least hint, made the least advancetowards an understanding between us, death, explosive death — yours asmine — would have ended the scene.”

“True, true,” cried Captain Delano, starting, “you have saved my life,Don Benito, more than I yours; saved it, too, against my knowledge and will.”

“Nay, my friend,” rejoined the Spaniard, courteous even to the pointof religion, “God charmed your life, but you saved mine. To think of somethings you did — those smilings and chattings, rash pointings and gestur-ings. For less than these, they slew my mate, Raneds; but you had the Princeof Heaven’s safe conduct through all ambuscades.”

“Yes, all is owing to Providence, I know; but the temper of my mindthat morning was more than commonly pleasant, while the sight of so muchsuffering, more apparent than real, added to my good nature, compassion,and charity, happily interweaving the three. Had it been otherwise, doubt-less, as you hint, some of my interferences might have ended unhappilyenough. Besides that, those feelings I spoke of enabled me to get the bet-ter of momentary distrust, at times when acuteness might have cost memy life, without saving another’s. Only at the end did my suspicions get thebetter of me, and you know how wide of the mark they then proved.”

“Wide, indeed,” said Don Benito, sadly; “you were with me all day; stoodwith me, sat with me, talked with me, looked at me, ate with me, drank withme; and yet, your last act was to clutch for a monster, not only an innocentman, but the most pitiable of all men. To such degree may malign machi-nations and deceptions impose. So far may even the best man err, in judgingthe conduct of one with the recesses of whose condition he is not acquainted.But you were forced to it; and you were in time undeceived. Would that, inboth respects, it was so ever, and with all men.”

“You generalize, Don Benito; and mournfully enough. But the past ispassed; why moralize upon it? Forget it. See, yon bright sun has forgottenit all, and the blue sea, and the blue sky; these have turned over new leaves.”

“Because they have no memory,” he dejectedly replied; “because theyare not human.”

“But these mild trades that now fan your cheek, do they not comewith a human-like healing to you? Warm friends, steadfast friends are thetrades.”

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“With their steadfastness they but waft me to my tomb, señor,” wasthe foreboding response.

“You are saved,” cried Captain Delano, more and more astonished andpained; “you are saved; what has cast such a shadow upon you?”

“The negro.”There was silence, while the moody man sat, slowly and unconsciously

gathering his mantle about him, as if it were a pall.There was no more conversation that day.But if the Spaniard’s melancholy sometimes ended in muteness upon

topics like the above, there were others upon which he never spoke at all;on which, indeed, all his old reserves were piled. Pass over the worst, and,only to elucidate, let an item or two of these be cited. The dress so preciseand costly, worn by him on the day whose events have been narrated, hadnot willingly been put on. And that silver-mounted sword, apparent sym-bol of despotic command, was not, indeed, a sword, but the ghost of one.The scabbard, artificially stiffened, was empty.

As for the black — whose brain, not body, had schemed and led the revolt,with the plot — his slight frame, inadequate to that which it held, had at onceyielded to the superior muscular strength of his captor, in the boat. Seeing allwas over, he uttered no sound, and could not be forced to. His aspect seemedto say, since I cannot do deeds, I will not speak words. Put in irons in the hold,with the rest, he was carried to Lima.27 During the passage Don Benito did notvisit him. Nor then, nor at any time after, would he look at him. Before the tri-bunal he refused. When pressed by the judges he fainted. On the testimony ofthe sailors alone rested the legal identity of Babo.

Some months after, dragged to the gibbet at the tail of a mule, the blackmet his voiceless end. The body was burned to ashes; but for many days, thehead, that hive of subtlety, fixed on a pole in the Plaza, met, unabashed, thegaze of the whites; and across the Plaza looked towards St. Bartholomew’schurch, in whose vaults slept then, as now, the recovered bones of Aranda;and across the Rimac bridge looked towards the monastery, on MountAgonia without; where, three months after being dismissed by the court,Benito Cereno, borne on the bier, did, indeed, follow his leader.

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27. Lima: In Moby-Dick (1851), Melville describes Lima in “The Whiteness of the Whale” as “thestrangest, saddest city thou can’st see” and in “The Town-Ho’s Story” as the epitome of theworld’s worst vices: “No need to travel! The world’s one Lima” (193, 250). An article titled “Limaand the Limanians,” which describes the Plaza in striking detail and gives a full history ofEuropean colonialism in Peru, appeared in the same issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazinein which “The Town-Ho’s Story” was published separately from Moby-Dick (October 1851).

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FROM A Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in theNorthern and Southern Hemispheres: ComprisingThree Voyages Round the World, Together with a

Voyage of Survey and Discovery in the Pacific Oceanand Oriental Islands

Amasa Delano

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111

Chapter XVIII

PARTICULARS OF THE CAPTURE OF THE SPANISH SHIP TRYAL, AT THE ISLAND OF ST. MARIA; WITH THE DOCUMENTS

RELATING TO THAT AFFAIR

IN INTRODUCING THE ACCOUNT of the capture of the Spanish ship Tryal, I shall first give an extract from the journal of the ship Perseverance,taken on board that ship at the time, by the officer who had the care ofthe log book.

“Wednesday, February 20th, commenced with light airs from thenorth east, and thick foggy weather. At six a.m. observed a sail open-ing round the south head of St. Maria, coming into the bay. It provedto be a ship. The captain took the whale boat and crew, and went onboard her. As the wind was very light, so that a vessel would not havemuch more than steerage way at the time; observed that the ship actedvery awkwardly. At ten a.m. the boat returned. Mr. Luther informedthat Captain Delano had remained on board her, and that she was a

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Spaniard from Buenos Ayres, four months and twenty six days out of port,with slaves on board; and that the ship was in great want of water, hadburied many white men and slaves on her passage, and that CaptainDelano had sent for a large boat load of water, some fresh fish, sugar,bread, pumpkins, and bottled cider, all of which articles were immediatelysent. At twelve o’clock (Meridian) calm. At two p.m. the large boat returnedfrom the Spaniards, had left our water casks on board her. At four p.m. abreeze sprung up from the southern quarter, which brought the Spanishship into the roads. She anchored about two cables length to the south eastof our ship. Immediately after she anchored, our captain with his boat wasshoving off from along side the Spanish ship; when to his great surprisethe Spanish captain leaped into the boat, and called out in Spanish, that the slaves on board had risen and murdered many of the people; and that hedid not then command her; on which manœuvre, several of the Spaniardswho remained on board jumped overboard, and swam for our boat, andwere picked up by our people. The Spaniards, who remained on board, hur-ried up the rigging, as high aloft as they could possibly get, and called outrepeatedly for help — that they should be murdered by the slaves. Our cap-tain came immediately on board, and brought the Spanish captain and themen who were picked up in the water; but before the boat arrived, we observedthat the slaves had cut the Spanish ship adrift. On learning this, our cap-tain hailed, and ordered the ports to be got up, and the guns cleared; butunfortunately, we could not bring but one of our guns to bear on the ship.We fired five or six shot with it, but could not bring her too [to]. We soonobserved her making sail, and standing directly out of the bay. We dis-patched two boats well manned, and well armed after her, who, after muchtrouble, boarded the ship and retook her. But unfortunately in the business,Mr. Rufus Low, our chief officer, who commanded the party, was desper-ately wounded in the breast, by being stabbed with a pike, by one of theslaves. We likewise had one man badly wounded and two or three slightly.To continue the misfortune, the chief office[r] of the Spanish ship, who wascompelled by the slaves to steer her out of the bay, received two very badwounds, one in the side, and one through the thigh, both from musket balls.One Spaniard, a gentleman passenger on board, was likewise killed by amusket ball. We have not rightly ascertained what number of slaves werekilled; but we believe seven, and a great number wounded. Our peoplebrought the ship in, and came to nearly where she first anchored, at abouttwo o’clock in the morning of the 21st. At six a.m. the two captains went onboard the Spanish ship; took with them irons from our ship, and doubled[double] ironed all the remaining men of the slaves who were living. Left

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Mr. Brown, our second officer, in charge of the ship, the gunner with him asmate, and eight other hands; together with the survivors of the Spanish crew.The captain, and chief officer, were removed to our ship, the latter for thebenefit of having his wounds better attended to with us, than he could havehad them on board his own ship. At nine a.m. the two captains returned,having put every thing aright, as they supposed, on board the Spanish ship.

“The Spanish captain then informed us that he was compelled by theslaves to say, that he was from Buenos Ayres, bound to Lima: that he was not from Buenos Ayres, but sailed on the 20th of December last fromValparaiso for Lima, with upwards of seventy slaves on board; that on the26th of December, the slaves rose upon the ship, and took possession ofher, and put to death eighteen white men, and threw overboard at differentperiods after, seven more; that the slaves had commanded him to go toSenegal; that he had kept to sea until his water was expended, and hadmade this port to get it; and also with a view to save his own and theremainder of his people’s lives if possible, by run[n]ing away from his shipwith his boat.”

I shall here add some remarks of my own, to what is stated above fromthe ship’s journal, with a view of giving the reader a correct understandingof the peculiar situation under which we were placed at the time this affairhappened. We were in a worse situation to effect any important enterprizethan I had been in during the voyage. We had been from home a year and ahalf, and had not made enough to amount to twenty dollars for each of mypeople, who were all on shares, and our future prospects were not very flat-tering. To make our situation worse, I had found after leaving New Holland,on mustering my people, that I had seventeen men, most of whom had beenconvicts at Botany bay. They had secreted themselves on board without myknowledge. This was a larger number than had been inveigled away from meat the same place, by people who had been convicts, and were then employedat places that we visited. The men whom we lost were all of them extraor-dinarily good men. This exchange materially altered the quality of thecrew. Three of the Botany-bay-men were outlawed convicts; they had beenshot at many times, and several times wounded. After making this badexchange, my crew were refractory; the convicts were ever unfaithful, andtook all the advantage that opportunity gave them. But sometimes exercis-ing very strict discipline, and giving them good wholesome floggings; andat other times treating them with the best I had, or could get, according astheir deeds deserved, I managed them without much difficulty during thepassage across the South Pacific Ocean; and all the time I had been on thecoast of Chili. I had lately been at the islands of St. Ambrose and St. Felix,

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and left there fifteen of my best men, with the view of procuring seals; andleft that place in company with my consort the Pilgrim. We appointedMassa Fuero as our place of rendezvous, and if we did not meet there,again to rendezvous at St. Maria. I proceeded to the first place appointed; thePilgrim had not arrived. I then determined to take a look at Juan Fernandez,and see if we could find any seals, as some persons had informed me theywere to be found on some part of the island. I accordingly visited that place,as has been stated; from thence I proceeded to St. Maria; and arrived the13th of February at that place, where we commonly find visitors. We foundthe ship Mars of Nantucket, commanded by Captain Jonathan Barney. Theday we arrived, three of my Botany bay men run from the boat when onshore. The next day, (the 14th) I was informed by Captain Barney, thatsome of my convict men had planned to run away with one of my boats, andgo over to the main. This information he obtained through the medium ofhis people. I examined into the affair, and was satisfied as to the truth ofit; set five more of the above description of men on shore, making eight inall I had gotten clear of in two days. Captain Barney sailed about the 17th,and left me quite alone. I continued in that unpleasant situation till the20th, never at any time after my arrival at this place, daring to let my whaleboat be in the water fifteen minutes unless I was in her myself, from a fearthat some of my people would run away with her. I always hoisted her in ondeck the moment I came along side, by which means I had the advantage ofthem; for should they run away with any other boat belonging to the ship,I could overtake them with the whale boat, which they very well knew. Theywere also well satisfied of the reasons why that boat was always kept onboard, except when in my immediate use. During this time, I had no fearfrom them, except of their running away. Under these disadvantages theSpanish ship Tryal made her appearance on the morning of the 20th, ashas been stated; and I had in the course of the day the satisfaction of see-ing the great utility of good discipline. In every part of the business of theTryal, not one disaffected word was spoken by the men, but all flew to obeythe commands they received; and to their credit it should be recorded, thatno men ever behaved better than they, under such circumstances. When itis considered that we had but two boats, one a whale boat, and the otherbuilt by ourselves, while on the coast of New Holland, which was very littlelarger than the whale boat; both of them were clinker built, one of cedar,and the other not much stouter; with only twenty men to board and carry aship, containing so many slaves, made desperate by their situation; forthey were certain, if taken, to suffer death; and when arriving along side ofthe ship, they might have staved the bottom of the boats, by heaving into

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them a ballast stone or log of wood of twenty pounds: when all these thingsare taken into view, the reader may conceive of the hazardous nature of theenterprise, and the skill and the intrepidity which were requisite to carryit into execution.

On the afternoon of the 19th, before night, I sent the boatswain withthe large boat and seine to try if he could catch some fish; he returned atnight with but few, observing that the morning would be better, if he wentearly. I then wished him to go as early as he thought proper, and he accord-ingly went at four o’clock. At sunrise, or about that time, the officer whocommanded the deck, came down to me while I was in my cot, with infor-mation that a sail was just opening round the south point, or head of theisland. I immediately rose, went on deck, and observed that she was toonear the land, on account of a reef that lay off the head; and at the sametime remarked to my people, that she must be a stranger, and I did not wellunderstand what she was about. Some of them observed that they did notknow who she was, or what she was doing; but that they were accustomed tosee vessels shew their colours, when coming into a port. I ordered the whaleboat to be hoisted out and manned, which was accordingly done. Presumingthe vessel was from sea, and had been many days out, without perhapsfresh provisions, we put the fish which had been caught the night beforeinto the boat, to be presented if necessary. Every thing being soon ready, asI thought the strange ship was in danger, we made all the haste in ourpower to get on board, that we might prevent her getting on the reefs; butbefore we came near her, the wind headed her off, and she was doing well.I went along side, and saw the decks were filled with slaves. As soon as Igot on deck, the captain, mate, people and slaves, crowded around me torelate their stories, and to make known their grievances; which could notbut impress me with feelings of pity for their sufferings. They told me theyhad no water, as is related in their different accounts and depositions.After promising to relieve all the wants they had mentioned, I ordered thefish to be put on board, and sent the whale boat to our ship, with ordersthat the large boat, as soon as she returned from fishing, should take a setof gang casks to the watering place, fill them, and bring it for their reliefas soon as possible. I also ordered the small boat to take what fish the largeone had caught, and what soft bread they had baked, some pumpkins,some sugar, and bottled cider, and return to me without delay. The boatleft me on board the Spanish ship, went to our own, and executed the orders;and returned to me again about eleven o’clock. At noon the large boat camewith the water, which I was obliged to serve out to them myself, to keepthem [from] drinking so much as to do themselves injury. I gave them at

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first one gill each, an hour after, half a pint, and the third hour, a pint.Afterward, I permit[t]ed them to drink as they pleased. They all looked upto me as a benefactor; and as I was deceived in them, I did them every pos-sible kindness. Had it been otherwise there is no doubt I should have fallena victim to their power. It was to my great advantage, that, on this occa-sion, the temperament of my mind was unusually pleasant. The apparentsufferings of those about me had softened my feelings into sympathy; or,doubtless my interference with some of their transactions would have costme my life. The Spanish captain had evidently lost much of his authorityover the slaves, whom he appeared to fear, and whom he was unwilling inany case to oppose. An instance of this occurred in the conduct of the fourcabin boys, spoken of by the captain. They were eating with the slave boyson the main deck, when, (as I was afterwards informed) the Spanish boys,feeling some hopes of release, and not having prudence sufficient to keepsilent, some words dropped respecting their expectations, which were under-stood by the slave boys. One of them gave a stroke with a knife on the headof one of the Spanish boys, which penetrated to the bone, in a cut four inchesin length. I saw this and inquired what it meant. The captain replied, thatit was merely the sport of the boys, who had fallen out. I told him it appearedto me to be rather serious sport, as the wound had caused the boy to loseabout a quart of blood. Several similar instances of unruly conduct, which,agreeably to my manner of thinking, demanded immediate resistance andpunishment, were thus easily winked at, and passed over. I felt willing how-ever to make some allowance even for conduct so gross, when I consideredthem to have been broken down with fatigue and long suffering.

The act of the negro, who kept constantly at the elbows of Don Bonitoand myself, I should, at any other time, have immediately resented; andalthough it excited my wonder, that his commander should allow this extraor-dinary liberty, I did not remonstrate against it, until it became trouble-some to myself. I wished to have some private conversation with the captainalone, and the negro as usual following us into the cabin, I requested thecaptain to send him on deck, as the business about which we were to talkcould not be conveniently communicated in presence of a third person. I spoke in Spanish, and the negro understood me. The captain assured me,that his remaining with us would be of no disservice; that he had madehim his confidant and companion since he had lost so many of his officersand men. He had introduced him to me before, as captain of the slaves, andtold me he kept them in good order. I was alone with them, or rather onboard by myself, for three or four hours, during the absence of my boat, atwhich time the ship drifted out with the current three leagues from my

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own, when the breeze sprung up from the south east. It was nearly fouro’clock in the afternoon. We ran the ship as near to the Perseverance as wecould without either ship’s swinging afoul the other. After the Spanishship was anchored, I invited the captain to go on board my ship and taketea or coffee with me. His answer was short and seemingly reserved; andhis air very different from that with which he had received my assistance.As I was at a loss to account for this change in his demeanour, and knew hehad seen nothing in my conduct to justify it, and as I felt certain that hetreated me with intentional neglect; in return I became less sociable, andsaid little to him. After I had ordered my boat to be hauled up and manned,and as I was going to the side of the vessel, in order to get into her, DonBonito came to me, gave my hand a hearty squeeze, and, as I thought, seemedto feel the weight of the cool treatment with which I had retaliated. I hadcommitted a mistake in attributing his apparent coldness to neglect; andas soon as the discovery was made, I was happy to rectify it, by a promptrenewal of friendly intercourse. He continued to hold my hand fast till Istepped off the gunwale down the side, when he let it go, and stood makingme compliments. When I had seated myself in the boat, and ordered her to beshoved off, the people having their oars up on end, she fell off at a sufficientdistance to leave room for the oars to drop. After they were down, the Spanishcaptain, to my great astonishment, leaped from the gunwale of the ship intothe middle of our boat. As soon as he had recovered a little, he called out inso alarming a manner, that I could not understand him; and the Spanishsailors were then seen jumping overboard and making for our boat. Theseproceedings excited the wonder of us all. The officer whom I had with meanxiously inquired into their meaning. I smiled and told him, that I neitherknew, nor cared; but it seemed the captain was trying to impress his peoplewith a belief that we intended to run away with him. At this moment one ofmy Portuguese sailors in the boat, spoke to me, and gave me to understandwhat Don Bonito said. I desired the captain to come aft and sit down by myside, and in a calm deliberate manner relate the whole affair[.] In the meantime the boat was employed in picking up the men who had jumped fromthe ship. They had picked up three, (leaving one in the water till after theboat had put the Spanish captain and myself on board my ship,) when myofficer observed the cable was cut, and the ship was swinging. I hailed thePerseverance, ordering the ports got up, and the guns run out as soon aspossible. We pulled as fast as we could on board; and then despatched theboat for the man who was left in the water, whom we succeeded to save alive.

We soon had our guns ready; but the Spanish ship had dropped so farastern of the Perseverance, that we could bring but one gun to bear on her,

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which was the after one. This was fired six times, without any other effectthan cutting away the fore top-mast stay, and some other small ropes whichwere no hindrance to her going away. She was soon out of reach of ourshot, steering out of the bay. We then had some other calculations to make.Our ship was moored with two bower anchors, which were all the cables oranchors of that description we had. To slip and leave them would be tobreak our policy of insurance by a deviation, against which I would herecaution the masters of all vessels. It should always be borne in mind, thatto do any thing which will destroy the guaranty of their policies, how greatsoever may be the inducement, and how generous soever the motive, is notjustifiable; for should any accident subsequently occur, whereby a loss mightaccrue to the underwriters, they will be found ready enough, and some-times too ready, to avail themselves of the opportunity to be released fromresponsibility; and the damage must necessarily be sustained by the own-ers. This is perfectly right. The law has wisely restrained the powers of theinsured, that the insurer should not be subject to imposition, or abuse. Allbad consequences may be avoided by one who has a knowledge of his duty,and is disposed faithfully to obey its dictates.

At length, without much loss of time, I came to a determination topursue, and take the ship with my two boats. On inquiring of the captainwhat fire arms they had on board the Tryal, he answered, they had nonewhich they could use; that he had put the few they had out of order, so thatthey could make no defence with them; and furthermore, that they did notunderstand their use, if they were in order. He observed at the same time,that if I attempted to take her with boats we should all be killed; for thenegros were such bravos and so desperate, that there would be no suchthing as conquering them. I saw the man in the situation that I have seenothers, frightened at his own shadow. This was probably owing to his hav-ing been effectually conquered and his spirits broken.

After the boats were armed, I ordered the men to get into them, andthey obeyed with cheerfulness. I was going myself, but Don Bonito tookhold of my hand and forbade me, saying, you have saved my life, and nowyou are going to throw away your own. Some of my confidential officersasked me if it would be prudent for me to go, and leave the Perseverance insuch an unguarded state; and also, if any thing should happen to me, whatwould be the consequence to the voyage. Every man on board, they observed,would willingly go, if it were my pleasure. I gave their remonstrances amoment’s consideration, and felt their weight. I then ordered into the boatsmy chief officer, Mr. Low, who commanded the party; and under him, Mr. Brown, my second officer, my brother William, Mr. George Russell, son

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to major Benjamin Russell of Boston, and Mr. Nathaniel Luther, midship-men; William Clark, boatswain; Charles Spence, gunner; and thirteen sea-men. By way of encouragement, I told them that Don Bonito consideredthe ship and what was in her as lost; that the value was more than one hun-dred thousand dollars; that if we would take her, it should be all our own;and that if we should afterwards be disposed to give him up one half, itwould be considered as a present. I likewise reminded them of the suffer-ing condition of the poor Spaniards remaining on board, whom I then sawwith my spy-glass as high aloft as they could get on the top-gallant-masts,and knowing that death must be their fate if they came down. I told them,never to see my face again, if they did not take her; and these were all ofthem pretty powerful stimulants. I wished God to prosper them in the dis-charge of their arduous duty, and they shoved off. They pulled after andcame up with the Tryal, took their station upon each quarter, and com-menced a brisk fire of musketry, directing it as much at the man at thehelm as they could, as that was likewise a place of resort for the negroes.At length they drove the chief mate from it, who had been compelled tosteer the ship. He ran up the miz[z]en rigging as high as the cross jackyard, and called out in Spanish, “Don’t board.” This induced our people tobelieve that he favoured the cause of the negroes; they fired at him, andtwo balls took effect; one of them went through his side, but did not godeep enough to be mortal; and the other went through one of his thighs.This brought him down on deck again. They found the ship made suchhead way, that the boats could hardly keep up with her, as the breeze wasgrowing stronger. They then called to the Spaniards, who were still as highaloft as they could get, to come down on the yards, and cut away the rob-ings and earings of the topsails, and let them fall from the yards, so thatthey might not hold any wind. They accordingly did so. About the same time,the Spaniard who was steering the ship, was killed; (he is sometimes calledpassenger and sometimes clerk, in the different depositions,) so that boththese circumstances combined, rendered her unmanageable by such peopleas were left on board. She came round to the wind, and both boats boarded,one on each bow, when she was carried by hard fighting. The negroesdefended themselves with desperate courage; and after our people hadboarded them, they found they had barricadoed the deck by making a breastwork of the water casks which we had left on board, and sacks of matta[mate], abreast the mainmast, from one side of the ship to the other, to theheight of six feet; behind which they defended themselves with all themeans in their power to the last; and our people had to force their way overthis breast work before they could compel them to surrender. The other

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parts of the transaction have some of them been, and the remainder will behereafter stated.

On going on board the next morning with hand-cuffs, leg-irons, andshackled bolts, to secure the hands and feet of the negroes, the sight whichpresented itself to our view was truly horrid. They had got all the men whowere living made fast, hands and feet, to the ring bolts in the deck; some ofthem had parts of their bowels hanging out, and some with half their backsand thighs shaved off. This was done with our boarding lances, which werealways kept exceedingly sharp, and as bright as a gentleman’s sword. Whilstputting them in irons, I had to exercise as much authority over the Spanishcaptain and his crew, as I had to use over my own men on any other occa-sion, to prevent them from cutting to pieces and killing these poor unfor-tunate beings. I observed one of the Spanish sailors had found a razor inthe pocket of an old jacket of his, which one of the slaves had on; he openedit, and made a cut upon the negro’s head. He seemed to aim at his throat,and it bled shockingly. Seeing several more about to engage in the samekind of barbarity, I commanded them not to hurt another of them, on painof being brought to the gang-way and flogged. The captain also, I noticed,had a dirk, which he had secreted at the time the negroes were massacre-ing the Spaniards. I did not observe, however, that he intended to use it,until one of my people gave me a twitch by the elbow, to draw my attentionto what was passing, when I saw him in the act of stabbing one of theslaves. I immediately caught hold of him, took away his dirk, and threat-ened him with the consequences of my displeasure, if he attempted to hurtone of them. Thus I was obliged to be continually vigilant, to prevent themfrom using violence towards these wretched creatures.

After we had put every thing in order on board the Spanish ship, andswept for and obtained her anchors, which the negroes had cut her from,we sailed on the 23d, both ships in company, for Conception, where weanchored on the 26th. After the common forms were passed, we delivered theship, and all that was on board her, to the captain, whom we had befriended.We delivered him also a bag of doubloons, containing, I presume, nearly athousand; several bags of dollars, containing a like number; and severalbaskets of watches, some gold, and some silver: all of which had been broughton board the Perseverance for safe keeping. We detained no part of thistreasure to reward us for the services we had rendered: — all that we receivedwas faithfully returned.

After our arrival at Conception, I was mortified and very much hurtat the treatment which I received from Don Benito Cereno; but had thisbeen the only time that I ever was treated with ingratitude, injustice, or

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want of compassion, I would not complain. I will only name one act of histowards me at this place. He went to the prison and took the depositions offive of my Botany bay convicts, who had left us at St. Maria, and were nowin prison here. This was done by him with a view to injure my character, sothat he might not be obliged to make us any compensation for what we haddone for him. I never made any demand of, nor claimed in any way what-ever, more than that they should give me justice; and did not ask to be myown judge, but to refer it to government. Amongst those who swore againstme were the three outlawed convicts, who have been before mentioned. I had been the means, undoubtedly, of saving every one of their lives, andhad supplied them with clothes. They swore every thing against me theycould to effect my ruin. Amongst other atrocities, they swore I was a pirate,and made several statements that would operate equally to my disadvan-tage had they been believed; all of which were brought before the viceroyof Lima against me. When we met at that place, the viceroy was too greatand too good a man to be misled by these false representations. He toldDon Bonito, that my conduct towards him proved the injustice of these dep-ositions, taking his own official declaration at Conception for the proof ofit; that he had been informed by Don Jose Calminaries, who was comman-dant of the marine, and was at that time, and after the affair of the Tryal,on the coast of Chili; that Calminaries had informed him how both DonBonito and myself had conducted, and he was satisfied that no man hadbehaved better, under all circumstances, than the American captain haddone to Don Bonito, and that he never had seen or heard of any man treat-ing another with so much dishonesty and ingratitude as he had treated theAmerican. The viceroy had previously issued an order, on his own author-ity, to Don Bonito, to deliver to me eight thousand dollars as part paymentfor services rendered him. This order was not given till his Excellency hadconsulted all the tribunals holding jurisdiction over similar cases, exceptthe twelve royal judges. These judges exercise a supreme authority over allthe courts in Peru, and reserve to themselves the right of giving a finaldecision in all questions of law. Whenever either party is dissatisfied withthe decision of the inferior courts in this kingdom, they have a right ofappeal to the twelve judges. Don Bonito had attempted an appeal from theviceroy’s order to the royal judges. The viceroy sent for me, and acquaintedme of Don Bonito’s attempt; at the same time recommending to me toaccede to it, as the royal judges well understood the nature of the business,and would do much better for me than his order would. He observed at thesame time, that they were men of too great characters to be biassed orswayed from doing justice by any party; they holding their appointments

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immediately from his majesty. He said, if I requested it, Don Bonito should beholden to his order. I then represented, that I had been in Lima nearly twomonths, waiting for different tribunals, to satisfy his Excellency what wassafe for him, and best to be done for me, short of a course of law, which Iwas neither able nor willing to enter into; that I had then nearly thirty menon different islands, and on board my tender, which was then somewhereamongst the islands on the coast of Chili; that they had no method that Iknew of to help themselves, or receive succor, except from me; and that ifI was to defer the time any longer it amounted to a certainty, that they mustsuffer. I therefore must pray that his Excellency’s order might be put in force.

Don Bonito, who was owner of the ship and part of the cargo, hadbeen quibbling and using all his endeavors to delay the time of payment,provided the appeal was not allowed, when his Excellency told him to getout of his sight, that he would pay the money himself, and put him (DonBonito) into a dungeon, where he should not see sun, moon, or stars; andwas about giving the order, when a very respectable company of merchantswaited on him and pleaded for Don Bonito; praying that his Excellency wouldfavour him on account of his family, who were very rich and respectable.The viceroy remarked that Don Bonito’s character had been such as to dis-grace any family, that had any pretensions to respectability; but that heshould grant their prayer, provided there was no more reason for com-plaint. The last transaction brought me the money in two hours; by whichtime I was extremely distressed, enought, I believe, to have punished mefor a great many of my bad deeds.

When I take a retrospective view of my life, I cannot find in my soul,that I ever have done any thing to deserve such misery and ingratitude asI have suffered at different periods, and in general, from the very personsto whom I have rendered the greatest services.

The following Documents were officially translated, and are insertedwithout alteration, from the original papers. This I thought to be the mostcorrect course, as it would give the reader a better view of the subject than any other method that could be adopted. My deposition and that of Mr. Luther, were communicated through a bad linguist, who could notspeak the English language so well as I could the Spanish, Mr. Luther nothaving any knowledge of the Spanish language. The Spanish captain’s dep-osition, together with Mr. Luther’s and my own, were translated intoEnglish again, as now inserted; having thus undergone two translations.These circumstances, will, we hope, be a sufficient apology for any thingwhich may appear to the reader not to be perfectly consistent, one declara-tion with another; and for any impropriety of expression.

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OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS.

STAMP. A FAITHFUL TRANSLATION OF THE DEPOSITIONSOF DON BENITO CERENO, OF DON AMASA DELANO,AND OF DON NATHANIEL LUTHER, TOGETHER WITHTHE DOCUMENTS OF THE COMMENCEMENT OFTHE PROCESS, UNDER THE KING’S SEAL.

I DON JOSE DE ABOS, and Padilla, his Majesty’s Notary for the RoyalRevenue, and Register of this Province, and Notary Public of the HolyCrusade of this Bishoprick, &c.

Do certify and declare, as much as requisite in law, that, in the crimi-nal cause, which by an order of the Royal Justice, Doctor DON JUAN MAR-TINEZ DE ROZAS, deputy assessor general of this province, conductedagainst the Senegal Negroes, that the ship Tryal was carrying from theport of Valparaiso, to that of Callao of Lima, in the month of December last.There is at the beginning of the prosecution, a decree in continuation ofthe declaration of her captain, Don Benito Cereno, and on the back of thetwenty-sixth leaf, that of the captain of the American ship, the Perseverance,Amasa Delano; and that of the supercargo of this ship, Nathaniel Luther,midshipman, of the United States, on the thirtieth leaf; as also the Sentenceof the aforesaid cause, on the back of the 72d leaf; and the confirmation ofthe Royal Audience, of this District, on the 78th and 79th leaves; and anofficial order of the Tribunal with which the cause and every thing elsetherein continued, is remitted back; which proceedings with a representa-tion made by the said American captain, Amasa Delano, to this Intendency,against the Spanish captain of the ship Tryal, Don Benito Cereno, andanswers thereto — are in the following manner —

Decree of the Commencement of the Process.

In the port of Talcahuane, the twenty-fourth of the month of February, onethousand eight hundred and five, Doctor Don Juan Martinez de Rozas,Counsellor of the Royal Audience of this Kingdom, Deputy Assessor, andlearned in the law, of this Intendency, having the deputation thereof onaccount of the absence of his Lordship, the Governor Intendent — Said,that whereas the ship Tryal, has just cast anchor in the road of this port,and her captain, Don Benito Cereno, has made the declaration of the twen-tieth of December, he sailed from the port of Valparaiso, bound to that ofCallao; having his ship loaded with produce and merchandize of the country,

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with sixty-three negroes of all sexes and ages, and besides nine suckinginfants; that the twenty-sixth, in the night, revolted, killed eighteen of hismen, and made themselves master of the ship — that afterwards they killedseven men more, and obliged him to carry them to the coast of Africa, atSenegal, of which they were natives; that Tuesday the nineteenth, he putinto the island of Santa Maria, for the purpose of taking in water, and hefound in its harbour the American ship, the Perseverance, commanded bycaptain Amasa Delano, who being informed of the revolt of the negroes onboard the ship Tryal, killed five or six of them in the engagement, andfinally overcame them; that the ship being recovered, he supplied him withhands, and brought him to the port. — Wherefore, for examining the truthof these facts, and inflict on the guilty of such heinous crimes, the penal-ties provided by law. He therefore orders that this decree commencing theprocess, should be extended, that agreeably to its tenor, the witnesses,that should be able to give an account of them, be examined — thus orderedby his honour, which I attest. — Doctor ROZAS

Before me, JOSE DE ABOS, and Padilla, his Majesty’s Notary of RoyalRevenue and Registers.

Declaration of first Witness, DON BENITO CERENO.

The same day and month and year, his Honour ordered the captain of theship Tryal, Don Benito Cereno, to appear, of whom he received before me,the oath, which he took by God, our Lord, and a Sign of the Cross, underwhich he promised to tell the truth of whatever he should know and shouldbe asked — and being interrogated agreeably to the tenor of the act, com-mencing the process, he said, that the twentieth of December last, he setsail with his ship from the port of Valparaiso, bound to that of Callao;loaded with the produce of the country, and seventy-two negroes of bothsexes, and of all ages, belonging to Don Alexandro Aranda, inhabitant ofthe city of Mendosa; that the crew of the ship consisted of thirty-six men,besides the persons who went [as] passengers; that the negroes were of thefollowing ages, — twenty from twelve to sixteen years, one from about eight-een to nineteen years, named Jose, and this was the man that waited uponhis master Don Alexandro, who speaks well the Spanish, having had himfour or five years; a mulatto, named Francisco, native of the province ofBuenos Ayres, aged about thirty-five years; a smart negro, named Joaquin,who had been for many years among the Spaniards, aged twenty six years,and a caulker by trade; twelve full grown negroes, aged from twenty-five tofifty years, all raw and born on the coast of Senegal — whose names are asfollow, — the first was named Babo, and he was killed, — the second who is his

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son, is named Muri, — the third, Matiluqui, — the fourth, Yola, — the fifth,Yau, — the sixth Atufal, who was killed, — the seventh, Diamelo, also killed, —the eighth, Lecbe, likewise killed, — the ninth, Natu, in the same mannerkilled, and that he does not recollect the names of the others; but that hewill take due account of them all, and remit to the court; and twenty-eightwomen of all ages; — that all the negroes slept upon deck, as is customaryin this navigation; and none wore fetters, because the owner, Aranda toldhim that they were all tractable; that the twenty-seventh of December, atthree o’clock in the morning, all the Spaniards being asleep except the twoofficers on the watch, who were the boatswain Juan Robles, and the car-penter Juan Balltista Gayete, and the helmsman and his boy; the negroesrevolted suddenly, wounded dangerously the boatswain and the carpenter,and successively killed eighteen men of those who were sleeping upondeck, — some with sticks and daggers, and others by throwing them aliveoverboard, after tying them; that of the Spaniards who were upon deck,they left about seven, as he thinks, alive and tied, to manœuvre the ship;and three or four more who hid themselves, remained also alive, althoughin the act of revolt, they made themselves masters of the hatchway, six orseven wounded, went through it to the cock-pit without any hindrance ontheir part; that in the act of revolt, the mate and another person, whosename he does not recollect, attempted to come up through the hatchway,but having been wounded at the onset, they were obliged to return to thecabin; that the deponent resolved at break of day to come up the compan-ion-way, where the negro Babo was, being the ring leader, and another whoassisted him, and having spoken to them, exhorted them to cease commit-ting such atrocities — asking them at the same time what they wanted andintended to do — offering himself to obey their commands; that notwith-standing this, they threw, in his presence, three men, alive and tied, over-board; that they told the deponent to come up, and that they would not killhim — which having done, they asked him whether there were in these seasany negro countries, where they might be carried, and he answered them,no; that they afterwards told him to carry them to Senegal, or to the neigh-bouring islands of St. Nicolas — and he answered them, that this was impos-sible, on account of the great distance, the bad condition of the vessel, thewant of provisions, sails and water; that they replied to him, he must carrythem in any way; that they would do and conform themselves to everything the deponent should require as to eating and drinking, that after along conference, being absolutely compelled to please them, for they threat-ened him to kill them all, if they were not at all events carried to Senegal. Hetold them that what was most wanting for the voyage was water; that they

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would go near the coast to take it, and thence they would proceed on theircourse — that the negroes agreed to it; and the deponent steered towardsthe intermediate ports, hoping to meet some Spanish or foreign vessel thatwould save them; that within ten or eleven days they saw the land, and continued their course by it in the vicinity of Nasca; that the deponentobserved that the negroes were now restless, and mutinous, because hedid not effect the taking in of water, they having required with threats thatit should be done, without fail the following day; he told them they sawplainly that the coast was steep, and the rivers designated in the maps werenot to be found, with other reasons suitable to the circumstances; that thebest way would be to go to the island of Santa Maria, where they mightwater and victual easily, it being a desert island, as the foreigners did; thatthe deponent did not go to Pisco, that was near, nor make any other port of the coast, because the negroes had intimated to him several times, thatthey would kill them all the very moment they should perceive any city,town, or settlement, on the shores to which they should be carried; thathaving determined to go to the island of Santa Maria, as the deponent hadplanned, for the purpose of trying whether in the passage or in the islanditself, they could find any vessel that should favour them, or whether hecould escape from it in a boat to the neighbouring coast of Arruco. To adoptthe necessary means he immediately changed his course, steering for theisland; that the negroes held daily conferences, in which they discussedwhat was necessary for their design of returning to Senegal, whether theywere to kill all the Spaniards, and particularly the deponent; that eight daysafter parting from the coast of Nasca, the deponent being on the watch alittle after day-break, and soon after the negroes had their meeting, thenegro Mure came to the place where the deponent was, and told him, thathis comrades had determined to kill his master, Don Alexandro Aranda,because they said they could not otherwise obtain their liberty, and that heshould call the mate, who was sleeping, before they executed it, for fear, ashe understood, that he should not be killed with the rest; that the deponentprayed and told him all that was necessary in such a circumstance to dis-suade him from his design, but all was useless, for the negro Mure answeredhim, that the thing could not be prevented, and that they should all run therisk of being killed if they should attempt to dissuade or obstruct them inthe act; that in this conflict the deponent called the mate, and immediatelythe negro Mure ordered the negro Matinqui, and another named Lecbe,who died in the island of Santa Maria, to go and commit this murder; thatthe two negroes went down to the birth of Don Alexandro, and stabbed himin his bed; that yet half alive and agonizing, they dragged him on deck and

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threw him overboard; that the clerk, Don Lorenzo Bargas, was sleeping inthe opposite birth [berth], and awaking at the cries of Aranda, surprised bythem, and at the sight of the negroes, who had bloody daggers in their hands,he threw himself into the sea through a window which was near him, andwas miserably drowned, without being in the power of the deponent toassist, or take him up, though he immediately put out his boat; that a shorttime after killing Aranda, they got upon deck his german-cousin, DonFrancisco Masa, and his other clerk, called Don Hermenegildo, a native ofSpain, and a relation of the said Aranda, besides the boatswain, Juan Robles,the boatswain’s mate, Manuel Viseaya, and two or three others of the sailors,all of whom were wounded, and having stabbed them again, they threwthem alive into the sea, although they made no resistance, nor begged forany thing else but mercy; that the boatswain, Juan Robles, who knew howto swim, kept himself the longest above water, making acts of contrition,and in the last words he uttered, charged this deponent to cause mass to besaid for his soul, to our Lady of Succour; that having finished this slaugh-ter, the negro Mure told him that they had now done all, and that he mightpursue his destination, warning him that they would kill all the Spaniards,if they saw them speak, or plot any thing against them — a threat whichthey repeated almost every day; that before this occurrence last mentioned,they had tied the cook to throw him overboard for I know not what thing theyheard him speak, and finally they spared his life at the request of the depon-ent; that a few days after, the deponent endeavoured not to omit any meansto preserve their lives — spoke to them peace and tranquillity, and agreedto draw up a paper, signed by the deponent, and the sailors who could write,as also by the negroes, Babo and Atufal, who could do it in their language,though they were new, in which he obliged himself to carry them to Senegal,and they not to kill any more, and to return to them the ship with the cargo,with which they were for that satisfied and quieted; that omitting otherevents which daily happened, and which can only serve to recal[l] theirpast misfortunes and conflicts, after forty-two days navigation, reckonedfrom the time they sailed from Nasca, during which they navigated undera scanty allowance of water, they at last arrived at the island of SantaMaria, on Tuesday the nineteenth instant, at about five o’clock in the afternoon, at which hour they cast anchor very near the American shipPerseverance, which lay in the same port, commanded by the generous cap-

tain Amasa Delano, but at seven o’clock in the morning they had alreadydescried the port, and the negroes became uneasy as soon as they saw theship, and the deponent, to appease and quiet them, proposed to them tosay and do all that he will declare to have said to the American captain,

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with which they were tranquilized warning him that if he varied in theleast, or uttered any word that should give the least intimation of the pastoccurrences, they would instantly kill him and all his companions; thatabout eight o’clock in the morning, captain Amasa Delano came in hisboat, on board the Tryal, and all gladly received him; that the deponent,acting then the part of an owner and a free captain of the ship, told themthat he came from Buenos Ayres, bound to Lima, with that parcel of negroes;that at the cape many had died, that also, all the sea officers and the great-est part of the crew had died, there remained to him no other sailors thanthese few who were in sight, and that for want of them the sails had beentorn to pieces; that the heavy storms off the cape had obliged them to throwoverboard the greatest part of the cargo, and the water pipes; that conse-quently he had no more water; that he had thought of putting into the portof Conception, but that the north wind had prevented him, as also the wantof water, for he had only enough for that day, concluded by asking of himsupplies; — that the generous captain Amasa Delano immediately offeredthem sails, pipes, and whatever he wanted, to pursue his voyage to Lima,without entering any other port, leaving it to his pleasure to refund himfor these supplies at Callao, or pay him for them if he thought best; that he immediately ordered his boat for the purpose of bringing him water,sugar, and bread, as they did; that Amasa Delano remained on board theTryal all the day, till he left the ship anchored at five o’clock in the after-noon, deponent speaking to him always of his pretended misfortunes, underthe fore-mentioned principles, without having had it in his power to tell asingle word, nor giving him the least hint, that he might know the truth,and state of things; because the negro Mure, who is a man of capacity andtalents, performing the office of an officious servant, with all the appear-ance of submission of the humble slave, did not leave the deponent onemoment, in order to observe his actions and words; for he understandswell the Spanish, and besides there were thereabout some others who wereconstantly on the watch and understood it also; that a moment in whichAmasa Delano left the deponent, Mure asked him, how do we come on? andthe deponent answered them, well; he gives us all the supplies we want,but he asked him afterwards how many men he had, and the deponent toldhim that he had thirty men; but that twenty of them were on the island,and there were in the vessel only those whom he saw there in the two boats;and then the negro told him, well, you will be the captain of this ship tonight and his also, for three negroes are sufficient to take it; that as soon asthey had cast anchor, at five of the clock, as has been stated, the Americancaptain took leave, to return to his vessel, and the deponent accompanied

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him as far as the gunwale, where he staid under pretence of taking leave,until he should have got into his boat; but on shoving off, the deponentjumped from the gunwale into the boat and fell into it, without knowinghow, and without sustaining, fortunately, any harm; but he immediatelyhallooed to the Spaniards in the ship, “Overboard, those that can swim, therest to the rigging.” That he instantly told the captain, by means of thePortuguese interpreter, that they were revolted negroes, who had killed allhis people; that the said captain soon understood the affair, and recoveredfrom his surprise, which the leap of the deponent occasioned, and toldhim, “Be not afraid, be not afraid, set down and be easy,” and ordered hissailors to row towards his ship, and before coming up to her, he hailed, toget a cannon ready and run it out of the port hole, which they did very quick,and fired with it a few shots at the negroes; that in the mean while the boatwas sent to pick up two men who had thrown themselves overboard, whichthey effected; that the negroes cut the cables, and endeavoured to sail away;that Amasa Delano, seeing them sailing away, and the cannon could notsubdue them, ordered his people to get muskets, pikes, and sabres ready,and all his men offered themselves willingly to board them with the boats;that captain Amasa Delano wanted to go in person, and was going to embarkthe first, but the deponent prevented him, and after many entreaties hefinally remained, saying, though that circumstance would procure him muchhonour, he would stay to please him, and keep him company in his afflic-tion, and would send a brother of his, on whom he said he placed as muchreliance as on himself; his brother, the mates, and eighteen men, whom hehad in his vessel, embarked in the two boats, and made their way towardsthe Tryal, which was already under sail; that they rowed considerably inpursuing the ship, and kept up a musketry fire; but that they could notovertake them, until they hallooed to the sailors on the rigging, to unbendor take away the sails, which they accordingly did, letting them fall on thedeck; that they were then able to lay themselves alongside, keeping up con-stantly a musketry fire, whilst some got up the sides on deck, with pikesand sabres, and the others remained in the stern of the boat, keeping upalso a fire, until they got up finally by the same side, and engaged the negroes,who defended themselves to the last with their weapons, rushing upon thepoints of the pikes with an extraordinary fury; that the Americans killedfive or six negroes, and these were Babo, Atufal, Dick, Natu, Qiamolo, anddoes not recollect any other; that they wounded several others, and at lastconquered and made them prisoners; that at ten o’clock at night, the firstmate with three men, came to inform the captain that the ship had beentaken, and came also for the purpose of being cured of a dangerous wound,

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made by a point of a dagger, which he had received in his breast; that twoother Americans had been slightly wounded; the captain left nine men totake care of the ship as far as this port; he accompanied her with his ownuntil both ships, the Tryal and Perseverance, cast anchor between nineand eleven o’clock in the forenoon of this day; that the deponent has notseen the twenty negroes, from twelve to sixteen years of age, have anyshare in the execution of the murders; nor does he believe they have had,on account of their age, although all were knowing to the insurrection;that the negro Jose, eighteen years old, and in the service of Don Alexandro,was the one who communicated the information to the negro Mure and hiscomrades, of the state of things before the revolt; and this is known, becausein the preceding nights he used to come to sleep from below, where theywere, and had secret conversations with Mure, in which he was seen sev-eral times by the mate; and one night he drove him away twice; that thissame negro Jose, was the one who advised the other negroes to kill hismaster, Don Alexandro; and that this is known, because the negroes havesaid it; that on the first revolt, the negro Jose was upon deck with the otherrevolted negroes, but it is not known whether he materially participated inthe murders; that the mulatto Francisco was of the band of revolters, andone of their number; that the negro Joaquin was also one of the worst ofthem, for that on the day the ship was taken, he assisted in the defence ofher with a hatchet in one hand and a dagger in the other, as the sailors toldhim; that in sight of the deponent, he stabbed Don Francisco Masa, whenhe was carrying him to throw him overboard alive, he being the one whoheld him fast; that the twelve or thirteen negroes, from twenty-five to fiftyyears of age, were with the former, the principal revolters, and committedthe murders and atrocities before related; that five or six of them werekilled, as has been said, in the attack on the ship, and the following remainedalive and are prisoners, — to wit — Mure, who acted as captain and com-mander of them, and on all the insurrections and posterior events, Matinqui,Alathano, Yau, Luis, Mapenda, Yola, Yambaio, being eight in number, andwith Jose, Joaquin, and Francisco, who are also alive, making the memberof eleven of the remaining insurgents; that the negresses of age, wereknowing to the revolt, and influenced the death of their master; who alsoused their influence to kill the deponent; that in the act of murder, andbefore that of the engagement of the ship, they began to sing, and weresinging a very melancholy song during the action, to excite the courage ofthe negroes; that the statement he has just given of the negroes who arealive, has been made by the officers of the ship; that of the thirty-six men

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of the crew and passengers, which the deponent had knowledge of, twelveonly including the mate remained alive, besides four cabin boys, who werenot included in that number; that they broke an arm of one of those cabinboys, named Francisco Raneds, and gave him three or four stabs, which arealready healed; that in the engagement of the ship, the second clerk, DonJose Morairi, was killed by a musket ball fired at him through accident, forhaving incautiously presented himself on the gunwale; that at the time ofthe attack of the ship, Don Joaquin Arambaolaza was on one of the yardsflying from the negroes, and at the approach of the boats, he hallooed byorder of the negroes, not to board, on which account the Americans thoughthe was also one of the revolters, and fired two balls at him, one passedthrough one of his thighs, and the other in the chest of his body, of whichhe is now confined, though the American captain, who has him on board,says he will recover; that in order to be able to proceed from the coast ofNasca, to the island of Santa Maria, he saw himself obliged to lighten theship, by throwing more than one third of the cargo overboard, for he couldnot have made that voyage otherwise; that what he has said is the mostsubstantial of what occurs to him on this unfortunate event, and the truth,under the oath that he has taken; — which declaration he affirmed and rat-ified, after hearing it read to him. He said that he was twenty-nine years ofage; — and signed with his honour — which I certify.

BENITO CERENO.Doctor ROZAS

Before me. — Padilla.

RATIFICATION.

In the port of Talcahuano, the first day of the month of March, in the yearone thousand eight hundred and five, — the same Honourable Judge of thiscause caused to appear in his presence the captain of the ship Tryal, DonBenito Cereno, of whom he received an oath, before me, which he took con-formably to law, under which he promised to tell the truth of what heshould know, and of what he should be asked, and having read to him theforegoing declaration, and being asked if it is the same he has given andwhether he has to add or to take off any thing, — he said, that it is the samehe has given, that he affirms and ratifies it; and has only to add, that thenew negroes were thirteen, and the females comprehended twenty-seven,without including the infants, and that one of them died from hunger or

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thi[r]st, and two young negroes of those from twelve to sixteen, togetherwith an infant. And he signed it with his honour — which I certify.

BENITO CERENO.

Doctor ROZAS.Before me. — Padilla.

DECLARATION OF DOM AMASA DELANO.

The same day, month and year, his Honour, ordered the captain of theAmerican ship Perseverance to appear, whose oath his Honour received,which he took by placing his right hand on the Evangelists, under whichhe promised to tell the truth of what he should know and be asked — andbeing interrogated according to the decree, beginning this process,through the medium of the interpreter Carlos Elli, who likewise swore toexercise well and lawfully his office, that the nineteenth or twentieth ofthe month, as he believes, agreeably to the calculation he keeps from theeastward, being at the island of Santa Maria, at anchor, he descried atseven o’clock in the morning, a ship coming round the point; that he askedhis crew what ship that was; they replied that they did not know her; thattaking his spy-glass he perceived she bore no colours; that he took hisbarge, and his net for fishing, and went on board of her, that when he goton deck he embraced the Spanish captain, who told him that he had beenfour months and twenty six days from Buenoes Ayres; that many of hispeople had died of the scurvy, and that he was in great want of supplies —particularly pipes for water, duck for sails, and refreshment for his crew;that the deponent offered to give and supply him with every thing he askedand wanted; that the Spanish captain did nothing else, because the ring-leader of the negroes was constantly at their elbows, observing what wassaid. That immediately he sent his barge to his own ship to bring, (as theyaccordingly did) water, peas, bread, sugar, and fish. That he also sent forhis long boat to bring a load of water, and having brought it, he returned tohis own ship; that in parting he asked the Spanish captain to come onboard his ship to take coffee, tea, and other refreshments; but he answeredhim with coldness and indifference; that he could not go then, but that hewould in two or three days. That at the same time he visited him, the shipTryal cast anchor in the port, about four o’clock in the afternoon, — that hetold his people belonging to his boat to embark in order to return to hisship, that the deponent also left the deck to get into his barge, — that on

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getting into the barge, the Spanish captain took him by the hand andimmediately gave a jump on board his boat, — that he then told him thatthe negroes of the Tryal had taken her, and had murdered twenty-five men,which the deponent was informed of through the medium of an inter-preter, who was with him, and a Portuguese; that two or three otherSpaniards threw themselves into the water, who were picked up by hisboats; that he immediately went to his ship, and before reaching her,called to the mate to prepare and load the guns; that having got on board,he fired at them with his cannon, and this same deponent pointed sixshots at the time the negroes of the Tryal were cutting away the cables andsetting sail; that the Spanish captain told him that the ship was alreadygoing away, and that she could not be taken; that the deponent replied thathe would take her; then the Spanish captain told him that if he took her,one half of her value would be his, and the other half would remain to thereal owners; that thereupon he ordered the people belonging to his crew, toembark in the two boats, armed with knives, pistols, sabres, and pikes, topursue her, and board her; that the two boats were firing at her near anhour with musketry, and at the end boarded and captured her; and thatbefore sending his boats, he told his crew, in order to encourage them, thatthe Spanish captain offered to give them the half of the value of the Tryalif they took her. That having taken the ship, they came to anchor at abouttwo o’clock in the morning very near the deponent’s, leaving in her abouttwenty of his men; that his first mate received a very dangerous wound in his breast made with a pike, of which he lies very ill; that three othersailors were also wounded with clubs, though not dangerously; that five orsix of the negroes were killed in boarding; that at six o’clock in the morn-ing, he went with the Spanish captain on board the Tryal, to carry mana-cles and fetters from his ship, ordering them to be put on the negroes whoremained alive, he dressed the wounded, and [accompanied] the Tryal tothe anchoring ground; and in it he delivered her up manned from his crew;for until that moment he remained in possession of her; that what he hassaid is what he knows, and the truth, under the oath he has taken, whichhe affirmed and ratified after the said declaration had been read to him, —saying he was forty-two years of age, — the interpreter did not sign itbecause he said he did not know how — the captain signed it with his hon-our — which I certify.

AMASA DELANO.

Doctor ROZAS.Before me. — Padilla.

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RATIFICATION.

The said day, month and year, his Honour ordered the captain of the Americanship, Don Amasa Delano to appear, of whom his Honour received an oath,which he took by placing his hand on the Evangelists, under which he prom-ised to tell the truth of what he should know, and be asked, and having readto him the foregoing declaration, through the medium of the interpreter,Ambrosio Fernandez, who likewise took an oath to exercise well and faith-fully his office, — he said that he affirms and ratifies the same; that he hasnothing to add or diminish, and he signed it, with his Honour, and likewisethe Interpreter.

AMASA DELANO.AMBROSIO FERNANDEZ.

Doctor ROZAS.Before me. — Padilla.

DECLARATION OF DON NATHANIEL LUTHER, MIDSHIPMAN.

The same day, month and year, his Honour ordered Don Nathaniel Luther,first midshipman of the American ship Perseverance, and acting as clerkto the captain, to appear, of whom he received an oath, and which he tookby placing his right hand on the Evangelists, under which he promised totell the truth of what he should know and be asked, and being interrogatedagreeably to the decree commencing this process, through the medium ofthe Interpreter Carlos Elli, he said that the deponent himself was one thatboarded, and helped to take the ship Tryal in the boats; that he knows thathis captain, Amasa Delano, has deposed on every thing that happened inthis affair; that in order to avoid delay he requests that his declarationshould be read to him, and he will tell whether it is conformable to the happening of the events; that if anything should be omitted he will observeit, and add to it, doing the same if he erred in any part thereof; and hisHonour having acquiesced in this proposal, the Declaration made this dayby captain Amasa Delano, was read to him through the medium of theInterpreter, and said, that the deponent went with his captain, AmasaDelano, to the ship Tryal, as soon as she appeared at the point of the island,which was about seven o’clock in the morning, and remained with him onboard of her, until she cast anchor; that the deponent was one of those whoboarded the ship Tryal in the boats, and by this he knows that the narra-tion which the captain has made in the deposition which has been read to

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him, is certain and exact in all its parts; and he has only three things toadd: the first, that whilst his captain remained on board the Tryal, a negrostood constantly at his elbow, and by the side of the deponent, the second,that the deponent was in the boat, when the Spanish captain jumped intoit, and when the Portuguese declared that the negroes had revolted; thethird, that the number of killed was six, five negroes and a Spanish sailor;that what he has said is the truth, under the oath which he has taken;which he affirmed and ratified, after his Declaration had been read to him;he said he was twenty one years of age, and signed it with his Honour, butthe Interpreter did not sign it, because he said he did not know how —which I certify.

NATHANIEL LUTHER.Doctor ROZAS.

Before me. — Padilla.

RATIFICATION.

The aforesaid day, month and year, his Honour, ordered Don NathanielLuther, first midshipman of the American ship Perseverance, and actingas clerk to the captain, to whom he administ[e]red an oath, which he tookby placing his hand on the Evangelists, under the sanctity of which hepromised to tell the truth of what he should know and be asked; and theforegoing Declaration having been read to him, which he thoroughlyunderstood, through the medium of the Interpreter, Ambrosio Fernandez,to whom an oath was likewise administ[e]red, to exercise well and faith-fully his office, he says that he affirms and ratifies the same, that he hasnothing to add or diminish, and he signed it with his Honour, and theInterpreter, which I certify.

NATHANIEL LUTHER.AMBROSIO FERNANDEZ.

Doctor ROZAS.Before me. — Padilla.

SENTENCE.

In this city of Conception, the second day of the month of March, of one thou-sand eight hundred and five, his Honour Doctor Don Juan Martinez de

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Rozas, Deputy Assessor and learned in the law, of this intendency, havingthe execution thereof on account of the absence of his Honour, the principalhaving seen the proceedings, which he has conducted officially against thenegroes of the ship Tryal, in consequence of the insurrection and atrocitieswhich they have committed on board of her. — He declared, that the insurrec-tion and revolt of said negroes, being sufficiently substantiated, with pre-medi[t]ated intent, the twenty seventh of December last, at three o’clock inthe morning; that taking by surprise the sleeping crew, they killed eighteenmen, some with sticks, and daggers, and others by throwing them alive over-board; that a few days afterward with the same deliberate intent, theystabbed their master Don Alexandro Aranda, and threw Don Franciso Masa,his german cousin, Hermenegildo, his relation, and the other wounded per-sons who were confined in the berths, overboard alive; that in the island ofSanta Maria, they defended themselves with arms, against the Americans,who attempted to subdue them, causing the death of Don Jose Moraira thesecond clerk, as they had done that of the first, Don Lorenzo Bargas; thewhole being considered, and the consequent guilts resulting from thoseheinous and atrocious actions as an example to others, he ought and didcondemn the negroes, Mure, Martinqui, Alazase, Yola, Joaquin, Luis, Yau,Mapenda, and Yambaio, to the common penalty of death, which shall be exe-cuted, by taking them out and dragging them from the prison, at the tail of abeast of burden, as far as the gibbet, where they shall be hung until they aredead, and to the forfeiture of all their property, if they should have any, to beapplied to the Royal Treasury; that the heads of the five first be cut off afterthey are dead, and be fixed on a pole, in the square of the port of Talcahuano,and the corpses of all be burnt to ashes. The negresses and young negroes ofthe same gang shall be present at the execution, if they should be in that cityat the time thereof; that he ought and did condemn likewise, the negro Jose,servant to said Don Alexandro, and Yambaio, Francisco, Rodriguez, to tenyears confinement in the place of Valdivia, to work chained, on allowanceand without pay, in the work of the King, and also to attend the execution ofthe other criminals; and judging definitively by this sentence thus pro-nounced and ordered by his Honour, and that the same should be executednotwithstanding the appeal, for which he declared there was no cause, butthat an account of it should be previously sent to the Royal Audience of thisdistrict, for the execution thereof with the costs.

DOCTOR ROZAS.Before me. — Jose De Abos Padilla.

His Majesty’s Notary of the Royal Revenue and Registers.

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CONFIRMATION OF THE SENTENCE.

SANTIAGO, March the twenty first, of one thousand eight hundred and five.

Having duly considered the whole, we suppose the sentence pronouncedby the Deputy Assessor of the City of Conception, to whom we remit thesame for its execution and fulfilment, with the official resolution, takingfirst an authenticated copy of the proceedings, to give an account thereofto his Majesty: and in regard to the request of the acting Notary, to theprocess upon the pay of his charges, he will exercise his right when andwhere he shall judge best. —

There are four flourishes.

Their Honours, the President, Regent, and Auditors of his Royal Audiencepassed the foregoing decree, and those on the Margin set their flourishes,the day of this date, the twenty first of March, one thousand eight hundredand five; — which I certify,

ROMAN.

NOTIFICATION.

The twenty third of said month, I acquainted his Honour, the King’s Attorneyof the foregoing decree, — which I certify,

ROMAN.

OFFICIAL RESOLUTION.

The Tribunal has resolved to manifest by this official resolve and pleasurefor the exactitude, zeal and promptness which you have discovered in thecause against the revolted negroes of the ship Tryal, which process it remitsto you, with the approbation of the sentence for the execution thereof,forewarning you that before its completion, you may agree with the mostIllustrious Bishop, on the subject of furnishing the spiritual aids to thosemiserable beings, affording the same to them with all possible dispatch. —At the same time this Royal Audience has thought fit in case you shouldhave an opportunity of speaking with the Bostonian captain, AmasaDelano, to charge you to inform him, that they will give an account to hisMajesty, of the generous and benevolent conduct which he displayed in thepunctual assistance that he afforded the Spanish captain of the aforesaid

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ship, for the suitable manifestation, publication and noticety of such amemorable event.

God preserve you many years.SANTIAGO, March the twenty second, of one thousand eight hundred

and five.

JOSE DE SANTIAGO CONCHA.

DOCTOR DON JUAN MARTINEZ DE ROZAS,Deputy assessor, and learned in the law, of the Intendency of

Conception.

I the unde[r]signed, sworn Interpreter of languages, do certify that theforegoing translation from the Spanish original, is true.

FRANCIS SALES.

Boston, April 15th, 1808.

N.B. It is proper here to state, that the difference of two days, in the datesof the process at Talquahauno, that of the Spaniards being the 24th ofFebruary and ours the 26th, was because they dated theirs the day weanchored in the lower harbour, which was one day before we got up abreastof the port at which time we dated ours; and our coming by the way of theCape of Good Hope, made our reckoning of time one day different fromtheirs.

It is also necessary to remark, that the statement in page 332, respect-ing Mr. Luther being supercargo, and United States midshipman, is a mis-take of the linguist. He was with me, the same as Mr. George Russell, andmy brother William, midshipmen of the ship Perseverance.

On my return to America in 1807, I was gratified in receiving a polite letterfrom the Marquis DE CASE YRUSO, through the medium of JUAN STOUGHTON

Esq. expressing the satisfaction of his majesty, the king of Spain, on accountof our conduct in capturing the Spanish ship Tryal at the island St. Maria,accompanied with a gold medal, having his majesty’s likeness on one side,and on the other the inscription, REWARD OF MERIT. The correspondencerelating to that subject, I shall insert for the satisfaction of the reader. Ihad been assured by the president of Chili, when I was in that country, andlikewise by the viceroy of Lima, that all my conduct, and the treatment Ihad received, should be faithfully represented to his majesty Charles IV, whomost probably would do something more for me. I had reason to expect,

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through the medium of so many powerful friends as I had procured at dif-ferent times and places, and on different occasions, that I should mostlikely have received something essentially to my advantage. This probablywould have been the case had it not been for the unhappy catastrophewhich soon after took place in Spain, by the dethronement of Charles IV, andthe distracted state of the Spanish government, which followed that event.

Philadelphia, 8th September, 1806.

Sir,HIS Catholic Majesty the king of Spain, my master, having been

informed by the audience of Chili of your noble and generous conduct in res-cuing, off the island St. Maria, the Spanish merchant ship Tryal, captain DonBenito Cereno, with the cargo of slaves, who had mutinized, and cruelly mas-sacred the greater part of the Spaniards on board; and by humanely supply-ing them afterwards with water and provisions, which they were in need of,has desired me to express to you, sir, the high sense he entertains of the spir-ited, humane, and successful effort of yourself and the brave crew of thePerseverance, under your command, in saving the lives of his subjects thusexposed, and in token whereof, his majesty has directed me to present to youthe golden medal, with his likeness, which will be handed to you by his con-sul in Boston. At the same time permit me, sir, to assure you I feel particularsatisfaction in being the organ of the grateful sentiments of my sovereign,on an occurrence which reflects so much honour on your character.

I have the honour to be, sir,Your obedient servant,

MARQUIS DE CASE YRUSO.

(Signed)Captain AMASA DELANO, of the American Ship Perseverance, Boston.

Boston, August, 1807

Sir,WITH sentiments of gratitude I acknowledge the receipt of your

Excellency’s much esteemed favour of September 8th, conveying to me thepleasing information of his Catholic Majesty having been informed of theconduct of myself and the crew of the Perseverance under my command. Itis peculiarly gratifying to me, to receive such honours from your Excellency’ssovereign, as entertaining a sense of my spirit and honour, and successful

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efforts of myself and crew in saving the lives of his subjects; and still moreso by receiving the token of his royal favour in the present of the goldenmedal bearing his likeness. The services rendered off the island St. Mariawere from pure motives of humanity. They shall ever be rendered hisCatholic Majesty’s subjects when wanted, and it is in my power to grant.Permit me, sir, to thank your Excellency for the satisfaction that you feelin being the organ of the grateful sentiments of your sovereign on thisoccasion, and believe me, it shall ever be my duty publicly to acknowledgethe receipt of such high considerations from such a source.

I have the honour to beYour Excellency’s most obedient,

And devoted humble servant,AMASA DELANO.

(Signed)His Excellency the Marquis DE CASE YRUSO.

Consular Office, 30th July, 1807.

Sir,Under date of September last, was forwarded me the enclosed letter

from his Excellency the Marquis DE CASE YRUSO, his Catholic Majesty’sminister plenipotentiary to the United States of America, which explainsto you the purport of the commission with which I was then charged, anduntil now have anxiously waited for the pleasing opportunity of carryinginto effect his Excellency’s orders, to present to you at the same time thegold medal therein mentioned.

It will be a pleasing circumstance to that gentleman, to be informedof your safe arrival, and my punctuality in the discharge of that duty so justly owed to the best of sovereigns, under whose benignity andpatronage I have the honour to subscribe myself, with great consideration,and much respect, sir,

Your obedient humble servant,JUAN STOUGHTON,

(Signed)

Consul of his Catholic majesty,

Residing at Boston.

AMASA DELANO, ESQ.

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BOSTON, AUGUST 8TH, 1807.

SIR,I Feel particular satisfaction in acknowledging the receipt of your

esteemed favour, bearing date the 30th ult. covering a letter from the MarquisDE CASE YRUSO, his Catholic Majesty’s minister plenipotentiary to the UnitedStates of America, together with the gold medal bearing his Catholic Majesty’slikeness.

Permit me, sir, to return my most sincere thanks for the honours Ihave received through your medium, as well as for the generous, friendlytreatment you have shown on the occasion. I shall ever consider it one ofthe first honours publicly to acknowledge them as long as I live.

These services rendered his Catholic Majesty’s subjects off the islandSt. Maria, with the men under my command, were from pure motives ofhumanity. The like services we will ever render, if wanted, should it be inour power.

With due respect, permit me, sir, to subscribe myself,

Your most obedient, andVery humble servant,

AMASA DELANO.

(Signed)To Don JUAN STOUGHTON ESQ. HIS CATHOLIC

MAJESTY’S CONSUL, RESIDING IN BOSTON.

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Suggestions for Further Reading and Research

MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY began in the 1920s, when the first collected editions of his work were being printed. Raymond Weaver’s Herman Melville (New York: Doran,1921) and Lewis Mumford’s Herman Melville (New York: Harcourt, 1929) initiated an intense “Melville Revival,” which peaked in the 1950s with Newton Arvin’sHerman Melville (New York: Sloane, 1950), Leon Howard’s Herman Melville: ABiography (Berkeley: U of California P, 1951), and Jay Leyda’s great compendium ofletters, clippings, and reviews, The Melville Log: A Documentary Life of HermanMelville, 1819–1891, in two volumes (New York: Gordian, 1969). One of Melville’sgranddaughters, Eleanor Melville Metcalf, who fostered much of the early research,published her own biography, Herman Melville: Cycle and Epicycle (Cambridge:Harvard UP, 1953). A trove of family letters preserved by Melville’s sister Augustawas discovered in 1983, providing new material for biographies in the late twenti-eth century: Laurie Robertson-Lorant’s Melville: A Biography (New York: ClarksonPotter, 1996) and Hershel Parker’s Herman Melville: A Biography, in two volumes(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1996, 2002). The first twenty-first-century criticalbiography is Andrew Delbanco’s Melville: His World and Work (New York: Knopf,2005).

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Suggestions for Further Reading and Research144

SOURCES AND CONTEXTS

Amasa Delano’s A Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in the Northern and SouthernHemispheres (Boston: E. G. House, 1817), part of which is reprinted in this volume, isconsidered Melville’s primary source for Benito Cereno and was identified in HaroldH. Scudder’s “Melville’s ‘Benito Cereno’ and Captain Delano’s Voyages” (PMLA 43[1928]: 502–32). Sterling Stuckey and Joshua Leslie have filled in the history of whathappened to Delano and Cereno after the revolt in “Aftermath: Captain Delano’sClaim Against Benito Cereno” (Modern Philology 85.3 [1988]: 265–87). Lea Newman’sA Reader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Herman Melville (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1986)offers a close comparison between Benito Cereno and Delano’s Narrative, as well as athorough review of the other sources of and scholarship on the story.

The Amistad revolt of 1839 has received considerable attention in CarolynKarcher’s “The Riddle of the Sphinx: Melville’s ‘Benito Cereno’ and the AmistadCase,” in Critical Essays on Herman Melville’s ‘Benito Cereno,’ edited by Robert E.Burkholder (New York: G. K. Hall, 1992). Iyunolu Folayan Osagie also gives a completeaccount of the Amistad and its place in American and African culture in The AmistadRevolt (Athens: U of Georgia P, 2000). Maggie Montesinos Sale’s The SlumberingVolcano: American Slave Ship Revolts and the Production of Rebellious Masculinity(Durham: Duke UP, 1997) looks closely at the revolts on the Amistad and the Creole,as well as at Benito Cereno and Frederick Douglass’s “The Heroic Slave.”

Carolyn Karcher’s Shadow over the Promised Land: Slavery, Race, andViolence in Melville’s America (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1980) was one of thefirst treatments of race and slavery in Melville’s work and provides a lengthy chapteron Benito Cereno. Eric J. Sundquist also offers an extended treatment of BenitoCereno in relation to the American slave narrative and the history of slavery in ToWake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature (Cambridge: Belknap Pof Harvard UP, 1993) and “Benito Cereno and New World Slavery,” in Burkholder. DanaNelson’s The Word in Black and White: Reading “Race” in American Literature,1638–1867 (New York: Oxford UP, 1992) provides important contexts for thinking aboutrace and colonialism in Melville’s period. Robert K. Wallace draws a close parallelbetween Melville’s work, including Benito Cereno, and the writings of FrederickDougass in Douglass and Melville: Anchored Together in Neighborly Style (NewBedford: Spinner, 2005). For a thorough treatment of the publishing world and its gen-dered expectations in relation to narratives of slavery, see Sarah Robbins, “Genderingthe History of the Antislavery Narrative: Juxtaposing Uncle Tom’s Cabin and BenitoCereno, Beloved and Middle Passage” (American Quarterly 49.3 [1997]: 531–73).

Sterling Stuckey’s work supplies the African background for understandingMelville’s work and includes two chapters on Benito Cereno in Going through theStorm: The Influence of African American Art in History (New York: Oxford UP,1994). He also has an important essay on what Melville might have known ofAfrican song and dance, “The Tambourine in Glory: African Culture and Melville’sArt,” in The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville, edited by Robert S. Levine(Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998).

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Rosalie Feltenstein’s “Melville’s ‘Benito Cereno’ ” (American Literature 19 [1947]:245–55) supplies considerable material on the references to Spain, the Inquisition,and monastic orders in Benito Cereno. On the allusion to Charles V and the role ofimperial Spain in this story, H. Bruce Franklin’s essay “ ‘Apparent Symbol ofDespotic Command’: Melville’s Benito Cereno,” in Burkholder, is helpful. For anexcellent study of Catholicism and Melville’s relationship to religion, see JennyFranchot, Roads to Rome: The Antebellum Protestant Encounter with Catholicism(Berkeley: U of California P, 1994).

CRITICAL STUDIES

Interest in Melville’s short fiction burgeoned in the second half of the twentiethcentury as scholarship on his major novels, especially Moby-Dick, peaked. Volumeson Melville’s short fiction include R. Bruce Bickley Jr.’s The Method of Melville’sShort Fiction (Durham: Duke UP, 1975); William B. Dillingham’s Melville’s ShortFiction, 1853–1856 (Athens: U of Georgia P, 1977); Marvin Fisher’s Going Under:Melville’s Short Fiction and the American 1850s (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP,1977); Harold Bloom’s Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, ‘Benito Cereno,’ ‘Bartleby theScrivener,’ and Other Tales (New York: Chelsea House, 1987); and Lea Newman’s AReader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Herman Melville (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1986).Studies of Benito Cereno especially proliferated in the wake of the civil rights move-ment of the 1960s, when critics began to realize the relevance of Melville’s treatmentsof race and slavery. For collections devoted solely to Benito Cereno, see Seymour L.Gross’s A Benito Cereno Handbook (Belmont: Wadsworth, 1965) and Robert E.Burkholder’s Critical Essays on Herman Melville’s ‘Benito Cereno’ (New York: G. K.Hall, 1992).

A number of companions and collections offer a range of resources for study-ing Melville, including his short fiction: John Bryant’s A Companion to MelvilleStudies (Westport: Greenwood, 1986); Robert S. Levine’s The Cambridge Companionto Herman Melville (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998); Giles Gunn’s A HistoricalGuide to Herman Melville (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005); and Wyn Kelley’s A Companionto Herman Melville (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006).

As might be expected, much of the strongest work on Benito Cereno focuses onrace, slavery, and colonialism. Important chapters on these issues appear in JeanFagan Yellin’s The Intricate Knot: Black Figures in American Literature, 1776–1863 (NewYork: New York UP, 1972); Robert S. Levine’s Conspiracy and Romance: Studies inBrockden Brown, Cooper, Hawthorne, and Melville (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989);Leonard Cassuto’s The Inhuman Race: The Racial Grotesque in American Literatureand Culture (New York: Columbia UP, 1997); and Geoffrey Sanborn’s The Sign of theCannibal: Melville and the Making of a Postcolonial Reader (Durham: Duke UP, 1998).

Other themes have received attention as well, especially political and ideologi-cal issues. Useful works specifically on Benito Cereno include treatments of ideologyand politics, such as James H. Kavanagh’s “That Hive of Subtlety: ‘Benito Cereno’ and

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the Liberal Hero,” in Ideology and Classic American Literature, edited by SacvanBercovitch and Myra Jehlen (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986); William Bartley’s“ ‘The Creature of His Own Tasteful Hands’: Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno and theEmpire of Might” (Modern Philology 93 [1996]: 445–67); and Maurice Lee’s study ofthe politics of language, “Melville’s Subversive Political Philosophy: ‘Benito Cereno’and the Fate of Speech” (American Literature 72.3 [2000]: 495–519).

In general studies of Melville’s work, a range of political and social issues havereceived attention. Some of those most relevant to a study of Benito Cereno includeMichael Paul Rogin’s Subversive Genealogy: The Politics and Art of Herman Melville(New York: Knopf, 1983); Sheila Post-Lauria’s Correspondent Colorings: Melville inthe Marketplace (Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1996); Robert K. Martin’s Hero,Captain, and Stranger: Male Friendship, Social Critique and Literary Form in theNovels of Herman Melville (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986); and SamuelOtter’s Melville’s Anatomies: Bodies, Discourse, and Ideology in AntebellumAmerica (Berkeley: U of California P, 1998).

INTERNET SITES

To visit the site of Arrowhead, Melville’s home in the Berkshires, where he wroteBenito Cereno, go to Herman Melville’s Arrowhead, <http://www.mobydick.org/index.html>. A digital text of Benito Cereno appears at Electronic ScholarlyPublishing, <http://www.esp.org/books/melville/piazza/contents/cereno.html>. Tosee the original printing of Benito Cereno in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine, go toMaking of America, <http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/>.

General sites on Melville include The Life and Works of Herman Melville,<http://www.melville.org/>, for which the bibliography is outdated and a number ofthe links nonfunctional. The American Authors site managed by Donna Campbell atGonzaga University has a Melville page: <http://www.wsu.edu/�campbelld/amlit/melville.htm>. The Melville Society site offers information about their jour-nals and conferences: <http://people.hofstra.edu/faculty/John_L_Bryant/Melville/>.

The most useful online historical source for Benito Cereno is Mystic Seaport’sExploring Amistad at Mystic Seaport, <http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/main/welcome.html>, which offers historical material on the slave revolt and in theDiscovery section includes an excellent essay by Mary K. Bercaw Edwards, “The Amistad Incident: The Source of Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno or Not?”Another site, Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno, <http://cla.calpoly.edu/�jbattenb/benitocereno/home-bc.htm>, offers maps and a selection from Lea Newman’s AReader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Herman Melville detailing the comparisonbetween Delano’s account of the revolt and Benito Cereno.

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Glossary of Literary Terms

Abstract language Any language thatemploys intangible, nonspecific con-cepts. Love, truth, and beauty areabstractions. Abstract language is the opposite of concrete language.Both types have different effects andare important features of an author’sstyle.

Allegory A narrative in which per-sons, objects, settings, or events repre-sent general concepts, moral qualities,or other abstractions.

Antagonist A character in some fic-tion, whose motives and actions workagainst, or are thought to workagainst, those of the hero, or protago-nist. The conflict between these char-acters shapes the plot of their story.

Archetype A term introduced in the1930s by psychologist C. G. Jung, whodescribed archetypes as “primordialimages” repeated throughout humanhistory. Archetypes, or archetypal pat-terns, recur in myths, religion, dreams,

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fantasies, and art, and are said to havepower because we know them, even ifunconsciously. In literature, arche-types appear in character types, plotpatterns, and descriptions.

Characterization Characterizationmeans the development of a characteror characters throughout a story.Characterization includes the narra-tor’s description of what characterslook like and what they think, say, anddo (these are sometimes very dissimi-lar). Their own actions and views ofthemselves, and other characters’views of and behavior toward them, arealso means of characterization.

Characters One of the elements of fiction, characters are usually the peo-ple of a work of literature; charactersmay be animals or some other beings.Characters are those about whom astory is told and sometimes, too, theones telling the story. Characters maybe minor, or major, depending on theirimportance to a story.

Climax The moment of greatest intensity and conflict in the action of astory is its climax.

Concrete language Any specific, physical language that appeals to oneor more of the senses — sight, hearing,taste, smell, or touch. Stones, chairs,and hands are concrete words.Concrete language is the opposite ofabstract language. Both types areimportant features of an author’s style.

Conflict Antagonism between char-acters, ideas, or lines of action;

between one character and the outsideworld; or between aspects of a charac-ter’s own nature. Conflict is essentialin a traditional plot.

Description Language that presentsspecific features of a character, object,or setting, or the details of an action orevent.

Dialogue Words spoken by charac-ters, often in the form of conversationbetween two or more. In stories andother forms of prose, dialogue is com-monly enclosed between quotationmarks. Dialogue is an important ele-ment in characterization and plot.

Diction A writer’s selection of words.Particular patterns or arrangements ofwords in sentences and paragraphsconstitute prose style. Hemingway’sdiction is said to be precise, concrete,and economical.

Didactic fiction A kind of fiction thatis designed to present or demonstratea moral, religious, political, or otherbelief or position. Didactic works aredifferent from purely imaginativeones, which are written for their inher-ent interest and value. The distinctionbetween imaginative and didactic writ-ing is not always sharp.

Elements of fiction Major elements offiction are plot, characters, setting,point of view, style, and theme. Skillfulemployment of these entities is essen-tial in effective novels and stories.From beginning to end, each elementis active and relates to the othersdynamically.

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Epiphany In literature, epiphanydescribes a sudden illumination of thesignificance or true meaning of a per-son, place, thing, idea, or situation.Often a word, gesture, or other actionreveals the significance. The term waspopularized by James Joyce, whoexplained it fully in his autobiographi-cal novel Stephen Hero (written in1914; pub. 1944).

Fiction Traditionally, a prose narra-tive whose plot, characters, and set-tings are constructions of its writer’simagination, which draws on his or herexperiences and reflections. Short sto-ries are comparatively short works offiction, novels long ones.

Figurative language Suggestive,rather than literal, language employ-ing metaphor, simile, or other figuresof speech.

First-person narrator See point of view.

Flashback A writer’s way of intro-ducing important earlier material. As a narrator tells a story, he or she may stop the flow of events anddirect the reader to an earlier time.Sometimes the reader is returned to the present, sometimes kept in the past.

Foreshadowing Words, gestures, andother actions that suggest futureevents or outcomes. An example wouldbe a character’s saying, “I’ve got a badfeeling about this,” and later in thenarration something “bad” does hap-pen to the character.

Genre A type or form of literature. The major literary genres are fiction,drama, poetry, and exposition (essay orbook-length biography, criticism, his-tory, and so on). Subgenres of fictionare the novel and the short story.

Image A word or group of words evok-ing concrete visual, auditory, or tactileassociations. An image, sometimescalled a “word-picture,” is an importantinstance of figurative language.

Interior monologue An extendedspeech or narrative, presumed to bethought rather than spoken by a char-acter. Interior monologues are similarto, but different from, stream of con-sciousness, which describes mentallife at the border of consciousness.Interior monologues are typically moreconsciously controlled and convention-ally structured, however private theirthoughts.

Irony A way of writing or speakingthat asserts the opposite of what theauthor, reader, and character know tobe true. Verbal or rhetorical ironyaccomplishes these contradictorymeanings by direct misstatements.Situational irony is achieved whenevents in a narrative turn out to bevery different from, or even oppositeto, what is expected.

Narrative A narrator’s story of charac-ters and events over a period of time.Usually the characters can be analyzedand generally understood; usually theevents proceed in a cause-and-effectrelation; and usually some unity canbe found among the characters, plot,point of view, style, and theme of a

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narrative. Novels as well as stories areusually narratives, and journalismcommonly employs narrative form.

Narrator The storyteller, usually anobserver who is narrating in the third-person point of view, or a participantin the story’s action speaking in thefirst person. Style and tone are impor-tant clues to the nature of a narratorand the validity and objectivity of thestory itself. Sometimes a narrator whotakes part in the action is too emotion-ally involved to be trusted for objectiv-ity or accuracy. This narrator would becalled an unreliable narrator.

Naturalism A literary movement that began in France in the late nine-teenth century, spread, moderated, andinfluenced much twentieth-century lit-erature. The movement, which startedin reaction against the antiscientificsentimentality of the period, borrowedfrom the principles, aims, and meth-ods of scientific thinkers such asDarwin and Spencer. Early naturalistsheld that human lives are determinedexternally by society and internally bydrives and instincts and that free willis an illusion. Writers were to proceedin a reporterlike, objective manner.Stephen Crane shows the influence ofearly naturalism, Ernest Hemingwayof later, more moderate, naturalism.

Novel An extended prose narrative or work of prose fiction, usually pub-lished alone. Hawthorne’s The ScarletLetter is a fairly short novel, Melville’sMoby-Dick, or, the Whale a very longone. The length of a novel enables itsauthor to develop characters, plot, and

settings in greater detail than a shortstory writer can.

Novella Between the short story andthe novel in size and complexity. Likethem, the novella is a work of prose fic-tion. Sometimes it is called a longshort story.

Omniscient narrator See point of view.

Parable A simple story that illus-trates a moral point or teaches a les-son. The persons, places, things, andevents are connected by the moralquestion only. The moral position of aparable is developed through thechoices of people who believe and actin certain ways and are not abstractpersonifications as in allegory, noranimal characters as in folk tales.

Parody Usually, a comic or satiricalimitation of a serious piece of writing,exaggerating its weaknesses andignoring its strengths. Its distinctivefeatures are ridiculed through exag-geration and inappropriate placementin the parody.

Plot One of the elements of fiction,plot is the sequence of major events ina story, usually in a cause-effect rela-tion. Plot and character are intimatelyrelated, since characters carry out theplot’s action. Plots may be described assimple or complex, depending on theirdegree of complication. “Traditional”writers usually plot their storiestightly; modernist writers employlooser, often ambiguous plots.

Point of view One of the elements offiction, point of view is the perspective,

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or angle of vision, from which a narra-tor presents a story. Point of view tellsus about the narrator as well as aboutthe characters, setting, and theme of astory. Two common points of view arefirst-person narration and third-personnarration. If a narrator speaks of him-self or herself as “I,” the narration is inthe first person; if the narrator’s self isnot apparent and the story is told aboutothers from some distance, using “he,”“she,” “it,” and “they,” then third-personnarration is likely in force. The point ofview may be omniscient (all-knowing)or limited. When determining a story’spoint of view, it is helpful to decidewhether the narrator is reportingevents as they are happening or as theyhappened in the past; is observing orparticipating in the action; and is or isnot emotionally involved.

Protagonist The hero or main char-acter of a narrative or drama. Theaction is the presentation and resolu-tion of the protagonist’s conflict, inter-nal or external; if the conflict is withanother major character, that charac-ter is the antagonist.

Realism Literature that seeks to present life as it is really lived by realpeople, without didacticism or moralagendas. In the eighteenth and nine-teenth centuries realism was contro-versial; today it is usual.

Regionalism Literature that isstrongly identified with a specificplace. Writers like Kate Chopin whoconcentrate on one area are calledregional realists; writers who do so forseveral works are said to have strong

regional elements in their body ofwork.

Rising action The part of a story’saction that develops its conflict andleads to its climax.

Setting One of the elements of fiction,setting is the context for the action:the time, place, culture, and atmo-sphere in which it occurs. A work mayhave several settings; the relationamong them may be significant to themeaning of the work.

Short story A short work of narrativefiction whose plot, characters, set-tings, point of view, style, and themereinforce each other, often in subtleways, creating an overall unity.

Stream of consciousness A narrativetechnique primarily based on the worksof psychologist-philosophers SigmundFreud, Henri Bergson, and WilliamJames, who originated the phrase in1890. In fiction, the technique isdesigned to represent a character’sinner thoughts, which flow in a streamwithout grammatical structure andpunctuation or apparent coherence.The novels Ulysses and FinnegansWake, by James Joyce, contain the mostfamous and celebrated use of the tech-nique. Stream of consciousness, whichrepresents the borders of conscious-ness, may be distinguished from theinterior monologue, which is morestructured and rational.

Structure The organizational pat-tern or relation among the parts of astory. Questions to help determine a story’s structure may include the

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following: Is the story told withoutstop from beginning to end, or is itdivided into sections? Does the narra-tor begin at the beginning of a plot, orwhen actions are already under way (inmedias res, in the middle of things)?Does the narrator begin at the end ofthe plot and tell the story through aseries of flashbacks? Is the storyorganized by major events or episodes,or by images or moods?

Style One of the elements of fiction,style in a literary work refers to thediction (choice of words), syntax(arrangement of words), and other lin-guistic features of a work. Just as notwo people have identical fingerprintsor voices, so no two writers use wordsin exactly the same way. Style distin-guishes one writer’s language fromanother’s.

Symbol A reference to a concreteimage, object, character, pattern, oraction whose associations evoke sig-nificant meanings beyond the literalones. An archetype, or archetypal sym-bol, is a symbol whose associations aresaid to be universal — that is, theyextend beyond the locale of a particu-lar nation or culture. Religious sym-bols, such as the cross, are of this kind.

In literature, symbolism refers to anauthor’s use of symbols.

Theme One of the elements of fic-tion, the theme is the main idea that isexplored in a story. Characters, plot,settings, point of view, and style allcontribute to a theme’s development.

Third-person narrator See point ofview.

Tone Like tone of voice. Literary toneis determined by the attitude of a nar-rator toward characters in a story andthe story’s readers. For example, thetone of a work may be impassioned,playful, haughty, grim, or matter-of-fact. Tone is distinct from atmosphere,which refers to the mood of a story andcan be analyzed as part of its setting.

Unity The oneness of a short story.Generally, each of a story’s elementshas a unity of its own, and all reinforceeach other to create an overall unity.Although a story’s unity may be evi-dent on first reading, much more oftendiscovering the unity requires reread-ing, reflection, and analysis. Readerswho engage themselves in these waysexperience the pleasure of bringing astory to life.

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About the Editor

Wyn Kelley (Ph.D., Stanford University) is a senior lecturer on the

Literature Faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is

the author of Melville’s City: Literary and Urban Form in Nineteenth-

Century New York (1996) and of essays in collections such as Savage

Eye: Melville and the Visual Arts (1991), Melville’s Evermoving Dawn:

Centennial Essays (1997), The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville

(1998), Ungraspable Phantom: Essays on Moby-Dick (2006), Melville and

Women (2006), and Hawthorne and Melville: Writing Relationship (2007).

She has edited Blackwell Publishers’ A Companion to Herman Melville

(2006) and coedited with Jill Barnum and Christopher Sten “Whole

Oceans Away”: Melville and the Pacific (2006). She serves as associate

editor of the Melville Society journal Leviathan and as founding member

of the Melville Society Cultural Project.

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